Feb 6, 2006 1:35 pm US/Central
Joliet Bishop Addresses Sex Abuse Response
JOLIET (AP) ―
Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch said in a letter to worshippers that he cares about the safety of children despite questions about how he has handled reports of alleged sexual misconduct by priests.
The letter, which was read in parishes over the weekend, responded to news reports of a 2005 deposition in which Imesch said he allowed at least four priests to continue working after he received credible allegations of misconduct.
"The media reports tend to portray me as someone who doesn't care about the safety of children," Imesch wrote. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I became a priest because I care."
The diocese tried to keep the deposition from the public to prevent the case from being tried in the news media. DuPage County Judge Stephen Culliton ruled to unseal it Feb. 2.
The deposition is part of a lawsuit against the diocese by a man who alleges the Rev. Edward Stefanich sexually abused him in the 1960s at the same Lombard parish where another priest was accused in the 1980s.
In the deposition, Imesch said he knew about reports that the other priest skinny-dipped and played poker in the nude with young boys. That priest was moved from Lombard to Lockport, where he was again accused.
Churchgoer Barbara Karwoski, 40, heard Imesch's letter read at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Naperville.
"It was something that needed to be said because, obviously, it was mishandled," Karwoski said.
Imesch, 74, has been bishop in Joliet for 26 years.
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