Tales of abuse leave family with mixed feelings about church

Grand Forks, North Dakota --

Pat Dow is the kind of Catholic mother and nurse not easily fazed by trauma. She and her husband, who is deceased, "raised eight children and saw eight children graduate from college."

"This probably isn't the first crisis we've faced," she says. She is the mother to whom 12-year-old Dan Dow came in 1970 with a tale of being abused by his priest.

"I said 'Dan, that's not your fault. That man is sick.'"

It was shocking, but not a complete surprise to a mother who had seen slight changes in her son.

"It was suspicious before," she said. "He had refused to serve Mass."

She immediately called her husband up to the room, and she and Dan told him the story.

"He said, 'Dan, I'll take care of this.'"

He and another father insisted action be taken, and James Porter was transferred out of the diocese.

Read the article at Grand Forks Herald dated 02/16/2005

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