Report: Police helped diocese hide sexual abuse allegations

Toledo, Ohio --

During the last several decades, police officers and other government officials have helped the Catholic Diocese of Toledo cover up allegations of sexual abuse by priests, a three-month investigation by The (Toledo) Blade shows.

Interviews with former officers and a review of court and diocese records show that at least five times since the 1950s, police have refused to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, The Blade reported Sunday. In some cases that did result in charges, authorities blocked the release of files to the public.

"You can't separate police from the issue," said Catherine Hoolahan, a Toledo lawyer representing victims of abuse. "Too many times, they could have arrested priests and sent a message to the church."

Four former officers say Police Chief Anthony Bosch, a Catholic who headed the Toledo department from 1956 to 1970, established an unwritten rule that priests could not be arrested.

"You would have been fired," said Gene Fodor, who served on the force between 1960 and 1981.

Fodor said several members of St. Stephen's Church in east Toledo complained to him in 1960 about a priest who they suspected was molesting altar boys at a cottage in western Lucas County.

Fodor and other officers who heard the complaints never filed a report. Instead, police allowed the priest to go to Canada. He eventually returned to the United States to serve a parish in Louisiana, where he died in 1978.

Read the article at ONN. Ohio News Now Dated August 4, 2005

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