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Kevin_Walker
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"BOSTON (CNS) - The Vatican has laicized four Boston priests who were accused of sexually abusing minors, the Boston Archdiocese said in a brief announcement, Feb. 11.
It said Robert D. Fay, Kelvin E. Iguabita, Bernard J. Lane and Robert A. Ward Jr may not ‘function in any capacity as a priest with the exceptionof offering absolution to the dying,’ and they ‘cease to receive any financial support from the archdiocese.’
Laicization is removal from the clerical state. When it is imposed rather than requested, it is sometimes called defrocking.
Iguabita, 36, has been imprisoned since 2003, when he was sentenced to 12 to 14 years for the rape of a teenage girl three years earlier.
Lane, 70, was removed from parish ministry in 1993 as a resultof alleged abuse of a number of minors in the 1970s but later returned to limited ministry in a retired priest’ home until his own retirement in 1999.
Fay, 68, had been on sick leave since 1988 in the wake of numberous accusations from the 1970s and '80s.
Ward, 58, was one of six Boston priests suspended Feb. 7, 2002, as the clerical sexual abuse scandal in Boston was still in its first stages, with new revelations coming almost daily. He reportedly had only a single allegation of abuse of a minor against him, but according to The Boston Globe, Church records also indicated drug abuse and use of child pornography from the Internet.
By some estimates, the congregation has received at least 500 cases involving accused U.S. priests, although the congregation itself consistently declines to discuss the number of cases or the particulars of any case.
The announcements in Boston and St. Louis were among a number of statements from varoius U.S. dioceses issued over thepast year or so that indicated the doctrinal congregation is steadily working through its clergy abuse caseload and reaching decisions."
*Source: ***THE PILOT **Feb. 18, 2005 Page 2.
It said Robert D. Fay, Kelvin E. Iguabita, Bernard J. Lane and Robert A. Ward Jr may not ‘function in any capacity as a priest with the exceptionof offering absolution to the dying,’ and they ‘cease to receive any financial support from the archdiocese.’
Laicization is removal from the clerical state. When it is imposed rather than requested, it is sometimes called defrocking.
Iguabita, 36, has been imprisoned since 2003, when he was sentenced to 12 to 14 years for the rape of a teenage girl three years earlier.
Lane, 70, was removed from parish ministry in 1993 as a resultof alleged abuse of a number of minors in the 1970s but later returned to limited ministry in a retired priest’ home until his own retirement in 1999.
Fay, 68, had been on sick leave since 1988 in the wake of numberous accusations from the 1970s and '80s.
Ward, 58, was one of six Boston priests suspended Feb. 7, 2002, as the clerical sexual abuse scandal in Boston was still in its first stages, with new revelations coming almost daily. He reportedly had only a single allegation of abuse of a minor against him, but according to The Boston Globe, Church records also indicated drug abuse and use of child pornography from the Internet.
By some estimates, the congregation has received at least 500 cases involving accused U.S. priests, although the congregation itself consistently declines to discuss the number of cases or the particulars of any case.
The announcements in Boston and St. Louis were among a number of statements from varoius U.S. dioceses issued over thepast year or so that indicated the doctrinal congregation is steadily working through its clergy abuse caseload and reaching decisions."
*Source: ***THE PILOT **Feb. 18, 2005 Page 2.
