June 1, 2002

Diocese adopts new policies on abuse ; Changes to be discussed at all weekend Masses;

Kathleen A. Shaw. Telegram & Gazette.

WORCESTER -- Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, terming sexual abuse of minors by priests a "sin that must be dealt with," yesterday announced new, far-reaching policies for handling allegations of abuse by clergy and church workers.

The bishop said in an interview that he believes the current crisis in the Catholic Diocese of Worcester and throughout the Catholic Church represents a "time of purification" that eventually will lead to a better church. "The church will be much better for it," Bishop Reilly said.

The changes are to be announced at all Masses in Central Massachusetts today and tomorrow, will be printed in The Catholic Free Press, the diocesan newspaper, and can be seen on the diocesan Web site, www.worcesterdiocese.org.

The bishop said the new policies were developed after months of discussions with victims of clergy abuse and parishioners from several parishes.

"Our intent here is to be proactive and to focus as much on prevention of abuse as in dealing with it once an allegation is made," he added.

Changes include creation of the Office for Healing and Prevention, which will be overseen by Patricia O'Leary Engdahl, a lawyer and former assistant district attorney. She has been working with the diocese's Office of Peace and Justice and has assisted with coordinating training for area clergy and church employees to ensure compliance with the new state law requiring that they report suspected abuse.

The Office for Healing and Prevention will coordinate and provide assistance to abuse victims and their families; work with parishes that lose a priest or other employee; and work with clergy members or church employees accused of abuse and their families, particularly during the investigatory process.

Bishop Reilly said he also intends to send outreach teams into parishes in which priests have been removed because of sexual abuse allegations. "This has been a very traumatic thing for people in those parishes," he said.

In recent months, the bishop has removed the Rev. John J. Bagley, pastor of St. Mary's parish in North Grafton; the Rev. Gerard Walsh of St. Roch's in Oxford; Rev. Peter J. Inzerillo of St. Leo's in Leominster; the Rev. Chester Devlin, pastor of St. Bernadette in Northboro; and the Rev. Lee F. Bartlett, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish, Worcester. The diocese is reviewing possible action against the Rev. Raymond Messier, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish, Athol, and St. Peter's parish, Petersham. He has been accused of sexual abuse.

"It is particularly difficult for people in parishes where they have lost a priest," Bishop Reilly said. "People think they are coming back."

He noted that many parishioners have had positive relationships with priests accused of sexual misconduct. "They see one side of the priest, but not necessarily the other side, and they do not understand," he said.

The sexual abuse scandals, he said, "have not hurt the faith of the people, but they have some real trust issues."

As head of the Office for Healing and Prevention, Ms. Engdahl will oversee a victim services coordinator, whose job will include working with sexual abuse victims and their families, ensuring that thorough criminal background checks are conducted on priests and diocese employees.

Besides her work as an assistant district attorney, Ms. Engdahl has worked with children through the Worcester Housing Authority and the Henry Lee Willis Community Center in Worcester. She is the mother of two daughters, both grammar school age, who attend Venerini Academy.

Bishop Reilly said the steps being taken focus on specific needs at this time, particularly spelling out procedures to bring forward allegations of abuse by priests, church employees and volunteers; identifying how the diocese will work with local authorities and agencies to investigate such allegations; and making it clear that the diocese will not tolerate any abuse and will take immediate action against those guilty of committing it.

"I see this as another step for us as a diocesan family to move forward, confident that we are calling all people of good faith to be responsible for their actions, while recognizing our Christian duty to do so with love," the bishop said.

The policy contains other information for Catholics in Worcester County and identifies the intensified screening process that is in place for seminarians, deacon candidates, school teachers and clergy from outside the diocese who want to serve in Central Massachusetts.

Diocesan spokesman Raymond L. Delisle said the new policies do not address all issues at this stage, including those that will be discussed later this month in Dallas at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"It is too early in the process to address standards for returning someone to ministry, or even if that is possible," according to the Rev. Rocco Piccolomini, chairman of the diocese's Pastoral Care Committee and its vicar for priests.

Besides creating the Office for Healing and Prevention, the diocese also will establish the Policy Review Committee, which will review application and enforcement of the new policies annually. It will consist of lay and clergy leaders with experience in psychology, law, abuse counseling, victims groups and social services.

Philip A. Saviano, New England director for the Survivors Network Against Priest Abuse, said he would withhold comment on the steps being taken by the diocese until he can study them more closely. He did say he recently met with Ms. Engdahl for an hour and considered the session productive.

Mr. Saviano, a native of Douglas, was molested by the Rev. David A. Holley during the 1960s when the priest was assigned to St. Denis parish in East Douglas.

Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer representing some alleged victims of priest abuse, said he has not had a chance to study fully what the Worcester Diocese is doing.

He said he found one "major flaw" in policy changes implemented earlier this year by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He noted that nearly all major corporations require a multilayered system for reporting "critical incidents," with those reports being reviewed by several different people or departments within a company. That is not the case with the archdiocese, he noted, where the responsibility falls on the archbishop.

Bishop Reilly said Central Massachusetts parishioners have been helpful in developing the new policies.

"I have had people coming by my office asking, `What can I do to help?' " he noted.

The members of the Pastoral Care Committee, which published the policy, are: Rev. Rocco Piccolomini, who is also co-director of the diaconate and the bishop's secretary; Mr. Delisle; Dr. John Duggan, retired pediatrician; Sister Rose Clarisse Gadoury, SSA, faculty member and spiritual adviser, Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, Weston; David Higgins, retired executive director, Community Healthlink, Worcester; Sister Paula Kelleher, SSJ, vicar for religious and member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains; Dr. John Madonna, licensed clinical psychologist; Frances Nugent, licensed clinical social worker; Monsignor F. Stephen Pedone, judicial vicar and vicar for canonical affairs; Sylvia Pusateri, lawyer; Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger; Elizabeth Reidy, family and child social work consultant; Eileen Scannell, retired worker for the state Department of Social Services; Monsignor Thomas J. Sullivan, chancellor and vocations director; Monsignor Edmond T. Tinsley, diocesan fiscal affairs director and program director for McAuley Nazareth Home for Boys and consultant to the Pastoral Care Committee; Ms. Engdahl, director of the new Office for Healing and Prevention.

Sun, 10 Feb 2002

My dear friends in Christ,

It is important that I write to you about a serious matter troubling our Church that is being widely discussed in the media, that is, child sexual abuse by some priests. I do so with a sad heart and a sense of duty but also with great concern for your personal welfare and that of your families, friends and fellow parishioners.

I write also to seek your prayers. Together we must pray fervently that hurts will be healed, pain will be eased, wounds will be treated and trust will be restored.

The issue of child abuse is one of the most heart wrenching realities we are facing today. Tragically, children have been preyed upon by some who were in a position of trust. The painful reality of having to include in that number some members of the clergy is ever present to my brother priests, the vast majority of whom have remained faithful to their vocation, as well as all the vowed religious and laypeople who share in the Church’s mission to bring Christ’s love to all, most especially children.

There are no words to comfort those who have been harmed. Nonetheless, we must and we will continue to strive to do all we can to protect children in our care and to offer assurance to the community at large that we are doing so to the best of our ability.

The Diocese of Worcester is doing all within its power to underscore our commitment to the wellbeing of the children in our care. An essential part of our commitment is the updating of our diocesan policy on reporting sexual abuse of children issued in 1996.

Of course, our commitment to children is not new. Indeed, some who have been hurt in the past by priests or others who serve the Church have sought our assistance and found support and resolution. Sadly, and understandably, others who have been hurt find it difficult to see the Church as trustworthy. Most will recognize the Church for what it is, an institution which does so much good through God’s grace and through dedicated and generous people, but human nevertheless in its members.

The state legislature is currently in the process of amending the Mandated Reporter Law. Our revised policy on reporting allegations of sexual abuse of children will be reissued as soon as that law is passed in order to assure the faithful that we are following the procedures set forth in its amendment of Section 51A of chapter 119 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Until that legislation is passed, I ask that all clergy, religious and lay employees as well as all volunteers follow the same rules that apply to our school and social service staffs in reporting such allegations of sexual misconduct to the Department of Social Services. This action will serve to strengthen our current position of zero tolerance for abuse of children. Information about reporting supplied by the Department of Social Services will be distributed soon to all the above. We will also have mandatory orientation sessions held throughout the diocese for all diocesan employees and volunteers following the release of our revised policies.

As we did in 1996 in reissuing the procedures for presenting an allegation of sexual misconduct, the revised policy will be published and distributed to all parishes for dissemination to all employees and volunteers as well as to any parishioners who desire a copy.

The Diocese of Worcester will continue to seek the advice of outside professionals on how we may improve areas involving screening of diocesan employees as well as oversight of volunteers to assure that we are always doing all we can do for the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care. For example, CORI checks have been mandated in education settings and encouraged in our volunteer areas, all following guidelines as set forth by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and taught in annual workshops through our Office of Religious Education.

The focus of our previous policy was on the speedy reporting of any threat to a child. In its attempt to be brief and understandable, that document, in retrospect, did not represent adequately our concern for victims and potential victims. Our new policy will reflect the recent approaches which have been developing throughout the community in helping victims and their families to deal with these heinous actions and will incorporate new procedures and insights that will help to avoid or eliminate to the best of our ability such abuse in the future.

I am asking those who are assisting our diocese with counseling resources to evaluate our ability to respond to those who have been abused in the past during their childhood. I will also convene an independent review committee of experts in child development, psychiatric counseling and the law to assure the public that our policies continue to be updated and effective.

Once again, I ask for your prayers so that, with God’s help and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our commitment to the protection of children in all ways will be vigorous and uncompromising.

Asking God to bless you, I am

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly

Bishop of Worcester

June 28, 2005

Bish Center director named ; Engdahl heads Anna Maria unit;

Kathleen A. Shaw. Telegram & Gazette.

WORCESTER - Patricia O'Leary Engdahl, who has directed the Office of Healing and Prevention of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester since its inception in 2002, is leaving that position to become director of the Molly Bish Center for the Protection of Children and Elderly at Anna Maria College.

Raymond L. Delisle, spokesman for the diocese, said yesterday Ms. Engdahl is leaving the job with the diocese but he had no information on who will replace her. Her appointment at Anna Maria, a Catholic college in Paxton, takes effect July 18.

Ms. Engdahl, a lawyer and former assistant district attorney in the office of John J. Conte, was hired by the diocese when the office was created in June 2002, about the time the American bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

Working with Frances Nugent, a licensed social worker, the office was involved in giving assistance to victims claiming clergy sexual abuse and in administering the programs aimed at rooting out clergy, church workers and volunteers who might pose a threat to young people. Her office was involved in doing criminal records checks of everyone working or volunteering in the diocese.

"We're delighted to have her," said Shelley Finn, Anna Maria spokeswoman. Ms. Engdahl replaces Sarla Chand, who left to take another job.

William D. McGarry, Anna Maria president, said the center was formed more than a year ago with the help and encouragement of John and Magdalen Bish, parents of Molly A. Bish. Ms. Bish, 16, was abducted from her lifeguard job in Warren five years ago and slain. Her killer has not been found. Mr. McGarry approached the Bishes and asked them to support such a center, he said. They not only supported the effort but became active participants. "They are wonderful people," he said.

The center's role is primarily educating people who serve "the most vulnerable people in our society, the young and the elderly," Mr. McGarry said.

Educational efforts are aimed at teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters, emergency workers and others who work with or serve young people and elders, he said. The center has sponsored symposia on issues related to protecting children and elders and has sponsored programs where people discuss issues from their own perspectives.

In time, Mr. McGarry said he expects the center will have a major database on protection issues. The center has been particularly concerned about how young people can be endangered through encounters on the Internet. Older people are particularly vulnerable to attempts by unscrupulous people to steal their money, he said.

Ms. Engdahl, a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Suffolk University Law School, previously was special assistant to the executive director of the Henry Lee Willis Center of Worcester, an agency that works with poor families and youths. She also worked for the Worcester Housing Authority.