Abusive, defrocked priests not monitored

Madison, Wisconsin --

If two suspended Catholic priests in the Madison Diocese are found guilty of sexual abuse in trials conducted by the church, they could join the growing ranks of defrocked predators sent into the community with no supervision.

At a time of heightened national concern about the need to track sex offenders, the Catholic Church in America has begun cutting loose dozens - perhaps hundreds - of priests who have molested children.

The church had already suspended the clerics after finding the child-abuse allegations against them to be credible. Now, as it defrocks them, expelling them from the priesthood, the men are quietly re- entering civilian life with only the barest notice to the public and no ongoing oversight by the church.

Nor is law enforcement certain to be watching them. In most instances, the statute of limitations in their cases expired years ago. This means they face no prospect of prosecution for past sex offenses. Only convicted sex offenders' names appear on public sex offender registries checkable by neighbors - and few of the defrocked priests were ever charged or convicted.

To critics, the church is washing its hands of a problem it helped create by failing to alert police to the abuse reports years ago, when they were first received.

"If, indeed, a person is a true predator, the institutional church still has an obligation to maintain some vigilance over him," said the Rev. Thomas Doyle, an early whistleblower on priest abuse, and now a prominent advocate for victims.

When an abuser is not kicked out, "at least there's some monitoring and maintenance and therapy," Doyle said.

Read the article at Wisconsin State Journal Dated August 2, 2005

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