Joliet bishop reverses decision, removes accused priest from ministry again

September 18, 2012

Just days after announcing that a priest would be allowed to return to active ministry despite accusations of sexual abuse, the Bishop of Joliet, Illinois, has reversed himself and removed the priest from ministry once again.

Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, who had cleared Father F. Lee Ryan for “a very narrow priestly ministry,” said that he had “decided to revoke my earlier permission and once again place Fr. Ryan on full administrative leave.”

Father Ryan’s short-lived return to ministry had been the result of a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which concluded that the priest had not committed a serious canonical crime that would justify removal from ministry. But after his partial return to pastoral work provoked a chorus of protests, Bishop Conlon reconsidered. Acknowledging that he was responding to public perceptions, the bishop argued that “any action needs to fulfill the larger need of the Church to confront the scandal of child abuse in its midst and diligently restore trust.”

Father Ryan is accused of conducting a relationship with a teenage boy during the 1970s. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith evidently found that the boy was above the canonical age of consent at the time (the American bishops have subsequently raised the canonical age of consent to 18). The priest’s accuser maintains that he was only 14 when the relationship began: a charge that the Vatican apparently did not find persuasive.

 

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Further information:

• Joliet Diocese again removes priest from public ministry (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Illinois priest who allegedly abused teen returned to limited ministry—reportedly at Vatican behest (CWN, 9/13)