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Copyright 2002 The Deseret News Publishing Co.

The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)

June 24, 2002, Monday

SECTION: WIRE; Pg. A02

LENGTH: 720 words

HEADLINE: Dozens protest against sexual abuse

BYLINE: By Robert O'Neill Associated Press writer

BODY:

BOSTON -- One by one, dozens of photos of children said to have been abused by priests were unveiled by relatives and supporters in a somber ceremony in the Boston Common. About 150 people looked on during the vigil on Sunday, which was followed by a single-file march through Boston's streets to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

The event culminated with people holding the photos on the steps of the cathedral, where protesters have demonstrated against Cardinal Bernard Law on Sundays since the church's sexual-abuse scandal erupted in January.

"I have spent my whole life trying to look perfect to the world so no one would see the awfulness inside," said Ann Hagan Webb, 49, of Wellesley, who says she was abused as a girl in Rhode Island but repressed her memories until 10 years ago and has since reached a settlement with the church.

"I don't want your sympathy, I don't want to be seen as damaged, I want your respect," she told the crowd.

Law, the subject of a grand jury probe over his role in the scandal, was aware of the march but was in Washington for a meeting, said the Rev. Christopher Coyne, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese.

"This kind of an event brings home the magnitude of the violence and harm that has occurred as a result of priests' abuse of children and teenagers," Coyne said. This past week, a former city councilor of North Adams who alleges he was abused by a convicted Springfield priest called for the resignation of Springfield's Roman Catholic leadership.

Paul R. Babeu, 33, said Bishop Thomas L. Dupre and retired Bishop Joseph F. Maguire of the Springfield Diocese should resign because they oversaw the Rev. Richard Lavigne, a convicted child molester, in the 1980s and early 1990s. In Ohio, two men said they were sexually abused by a priest who took boys to a cottage for weekend visits that included what the priest called "sexual experimentation," The Blade of Toledo reported on Sunday.

The men said between 1956 and 1961, the Rev. Leo Welch invited nearly 50 boys to his cottage. Some said he called them individually into his bedroom to wrestle, coaxed them into taking off their clothes and forced them to perform sexual acts, the newspaper reported.

George Keller, 54, and Harold Lee, 50, accused Welch of repeatedly sodomizing them and have taken their cases to officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo.

Welch, 75, who abruptly left the church in 1965, did not deny the allegations. He said he was an alcoholic at the time and did not remember much of his weekends with the boys, ages 9 to 13.

"The only way I could label it -- it was a sexual experimentation," he told the newspaper. "I've lived with this every day of my life. I was sick. That's all I can say. I was sick."

In other developments:

-- In Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony read a letter of apology for not acting sooner in the face of evidence of clergy sexual abuse.

"I ask for your forgiveness for not understanding earlier the extent of the problem and for not taking swifter action to remove from ministry anyone who had abused a minor in the past," Mahony said Sunday, reading a two-page letter being read by priests at every parish in the archdiocese.

-- Also on Sunday, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago barred five Roman Catholic priests from pastoral duties, a move Cardinal Francis George said is in keeping with new policies for dealing with priests identified as sexual abusers.

The action, which is being called temporary, is part of the archdiocese's effort to conform to new, more stringent polices adopted earlier this month by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, George said.

A Vatican tribunal will review the cases of the five priests, who have appealed their cases. Archdiocese administrator the Rev. Daniel Smilanic said the Vatican could either resolve the cases or send them back to Chicago for resolution, a process that could take more than a year.

If permanently removed from clerical duties, the priests would be barred from celebrating Mass and wearing clerical attire and would no longer be allowed to "present themselves publicly as priests on any occasion," George said.

Archdiocese officials said each priest was the subject of allegations of sexual abuse involving minors, some dating back more than 30 years.

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