Vatican clears former pastor of sex charges

[markomalley]

The Rev. William J. Dowd, a popular Bergen County priest who was accused in 2002 of sexual misconduct with minors, has been cleared by church officials in Rome.

The decision means the 67-year-old Dowd can wear clerical garb, celebrate Mass and represent himself as a Catholic priest for the first time in more than five years. But he won't be reassigned to St. Luke's in Ho-Ho-Kus, where he had been pastor and where some parishioners had rallied to his defense.

*snip*

He still has a strong following at St. Luke's, where parishioners once rallied outside the archdiocesan headquarters on his behalf. The archdiocese installed a new pastor there after Dowd was placed on administrative leave.

Some parishioners applauded and wept with joy when news of the decision was read during Masses this weekend.

"The tissues came out and you could see the tears," said Gloria Kane of Waldwick. "We would've stood up and applauded, but that may have seemed disrespectful."

*snip*

Through it all, a group of parishioners at St. Luke's continued to back Dowd and to express frustration at how long the process was taking.

Parishioners such as Joe Colavita of Waldwick continued to stay in touch with Dowd long after his removal.

"I knew him as a person and as a man, not just as a parish priest," Colavita said. "He became a personal friend, someone who knew my wife and my children.

"Knowing him as well as I did, I just found the accusations hard to believe."

Source: North Jersey Media

I post this here, not because I want to cause anybody any pain, but I understand that there are a few clergy sex abuse victims here (from what I understand, not just excathedra's family members) and somebody might have some first hand knowledge of some abuse committed by this guy. So I'm curious, does anybody know, first hand, of his actually abusing anybody?

[excathedra]

Dowd had actually been cleared following a 2005 church trial, but the results had to be reviewed by the Vatican. Officials in Rome contacted the archdiocese late last week to say they had affirmed the earlier decision.

a church trial ?

yeah my brother was part of one of those

--

Criminal statutes of limitation had expired, but an archdiocese review board found the charge credible enough to warrant a church-run trial. In the meantime, a second accuser came forward. Dowd's trial was held in January 2005, and the final results came back Friday, Goodness said.

Neither Dowd nor his accusers could be reached for comment yesterday. Goodness would not discuss details of the accusations.

Like all canonical trials, Dowd's was conducted behind closed doors before a panel of three canon lawyers serving as judges. There was no jury or traditional cross-examination.

almost exactly what happened with my brother

gimme a break

--

ps. mark, would it help you to know what you're asking ?

[excathedra]

got any problem with the closed door church trial ?

[markomalley]

got any problem with the closed door church trial ?

Normally, no.

But in the case of this scandal, I would like to see it opened up. I think, if everybody were to consent, that would be the way to go...because of how public the scandal became.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want it to become a lynching. Either for the accused (particularly if the accusations are not factual) or the victims.

Think about a (secular) rape trial. The classic defense is for the defense to destroy the accuser's reputation. I'm not sure that if there were public ecclesiastic trials that the defense lawyer would not try to do the same thing.

OTOH, what I'd really like to see is as ecclesiastic trial for a couple of bishops (Bernard Law, Roger Mahony, for a couple of examples). And THOSE I'd definitely like to see done publicly.