Fugitive U.S. priest arrested in Rome

Rome, Italy --

Italian authorities have arrested a fugitive American priest who eluded criminal charges for two years by living with his Catholic superiors a block from the Vatican.

The Rev. Joseph Henn was placed under house arrest at the world headquarters of his Salvatorian religious order over the weekend, said Father John Gorman, one of his U.S.-based bosses.

The priest's lawyer and psychiatrist are urging him to challenge extradition, Father Gorman said. The order opposes that advice, he said, but will still let Father Henn remain at the headquarters – as it has since 2003 when he first refused to go back to Phoenix and face the 13 molestation charges against him.

"We can't force him [to return] nor can we throw him out on the street," Father Gorman said.

The Dallas Morning News located Father Henn in Rome last year as part of a series examining how priests move from country to country to stay ahead of sex-abuse allegations, often with church help. Father Henn was one of several accused clerics, some of them fugitives and ex-cons, that The News found living and working in the shadow of the Vatican.

Shortly after Father Henn was indicted, Phoenix prosecutors wrote the Vatican's secretariat of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and asked for help in returning him from Rome. The letter was sent back, resealed, along with a note saying it had been refused.

Read the article at DallasNews.com Dated July 18, 2005

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