Vatican clears retired US bishop of multiple abuse claims
Source: AP
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME (AP) — The Vatican has cleared a retired U.S. bishop of multiple allegations he sexually abused minors and teenagers, rejecting lay experts’ determination that a half-dozen claims were credible and instead slapping him on the wrist for what it called “flagrant” imprudent behavior.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith exonerated retired Cheyenne, Wyoming Bishop Joseph Hart of seven accusations abuse and determined that five others couldn’t be proven “with moral certitude.” Two other cases involving boys, who were 16 and 17, couldn’t be prosecuted given the Catholic Church didn’t consider them minors at the time of the alleged abuse, the diocese reported Monday. A 13th allegation wasn’t addressed in the decree.
Hart, 89, had long maintained his innocence and denied all allegations of misconduct.
The Vatican decision clearly disappointed Hart’s successor, Bishop Steven Biegler, who stressed that the Vatican’s findings didn’t mean Hart was innocent, just that the Holy See determined that the high burden of proof hadn’t been met.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wyoming-cheyenne-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-europe-sexual-abuse-7649a0cf356648cc294c1a787353f756
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“There’s a pattern from Guardian Angels to St. Regis, from Missouri to Wyoming,” said John, referring to two Kansas City parishes where Hart worked in the 1950s and ‘60s. “He’ll take high-risk kids, kids without dads or maybe dad’s an alcoholic — I don’t know, but he seemed to prey on the less fortunate.”
“He completely victimized the families he was in,” said Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney who began investigating Hart in 2001. She has represented several of his victims in lawsuits against the church.
Some of three men’s stories, which allege abuse by Hart that dates back to the early 1960s, have been known to church authorities since at least the 1990s. The men and their families say they been called liars, told that their stories weren’t credible, accused of seeking a payday, ostracized from Catholic friends. They describe the aftershocks and re-victimization that came from the failures of law enforcement, prosecutors and, most of all, the Catholic church. They describe caustic conversations with church lawyers and investigators. They feared their parents would lose jobs, that no one would believe them, that they would run afoul of God.
The men say the institutional failings continued into this summer, when Martin said the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office told him Hart would not face criminal prosecution in an investigation launched in April 2018. The situation has grown muddled since: The Natrona County prosecutors who were apparently set to drop the case have since said they’re taking another look, after their office, Cheyenne police said, apparently misread documents at the foundation of the investigation.
Martin is one of the six people whose allegations against Hart have been substantiated by the Catholic Diocese in Cheyenne. As part of legal settlements in Kansas City, John, one of Darrel Hunter’s brothers and other victims’ accounts have also been substantiated. (Darrel Hunter’s other brother died before the lawsuit.) After the initial decision not to charge Hart was announced, the bishops in Cheyenne and Kansas City both released statements saying they continued to believe the victims’ accounts.
More:
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/how-do-you-say-no-to-a-bishop-hart-accusers-say-they-survived-years-of/article_0e1c5326-a06e-5379-89f5-567d62925afb.html
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Wikipedia:
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Sexual abuse scandal
In 1989 and 1992, the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph received accusations that Hart had sexually abused young boys in the early 1970s, when he was still a Missouri priest.[4] He volunteered to go to an Arizona residential facility for a psychiatric evaluation, which later concluded that Hart "does not appear to be a threat to himself or others on any level."[5] The allegations were reported to the Papal Nuncio and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but were not revealed to the public until January 2002. Hart "categorically and completely" denied the allegations, which he described as "baseless" and sources of "great pain...[and] embarrassment."[4]
In 2002, Hart was accused of repeatedly coercing a 14-year-old boy to expose himself in 1977, when Hart was an auxiliary bishop in Cheyenne.[6] He was cleared of those charges in July of that year. That investigation was flawed and has since been re-opened and additional alleged victims have come forward. [7][8] Hart's successor David Ricken, who was later made Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, has also been implicated for his role in defending, and possibly also protecting, Hart during this criminal investigation.[9]
In 2004, Hart was named in a civil lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused three children while he was serving in Kansas City and later Cheyenne.[10] In 2005, a fifth person alleged abuse by Hart in 1973 or 1974, when he was a 12-year-old parishioner at St. John Francis Regis Parish.[5]
In August 2008, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese paid a $10 million settlement to a group of 47 victims who cited Hart among 12 other clergymen responsible for their abuse.[11]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hubert_Hart
