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Bishop Ryan Suspends Ministry Pending Investigation
From the September 1, 2002 Catholic Times, Springfield, IL

Although he has denied the allegation, retired Bishop Daniel L. Ryan has agreed to suspend all public ministry pending an investigation of a claim of sexual abuse of a minor.

In mid-June, attorneys for the diocese received information concerning a statement by Springfield resident Frank Sigretto containing an allegation of sexual misconduct by Bishop Ryan. The incident was said to have occurred in the mid-1980s when Sigretto would have been under the age of 18.

Since the allegation involved sexual abuse of a minor, attorneys for the diocese immediately notified the Sangamon County State's Attorney.

The information was brought to the attention of the diocese by Springfield attorney Frederick Nessler. On July 9, Nessler filed the statement as part of supporting documents in McCormick v. Alvin Campbell et al, an ongoing suit against the diocese, Bishop Ryan and the late Bishop Joseph McNicholas. The suit is related to the Alvin Campbell case of the mid-1980s. In 1985, Campbell, then a priest of the diocese, was convicted in Christian County of sexual abuse of minors, fined and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was removed from all priestly ministry and subsequently laicized.

Under church law, neither the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, crafted at the bishops' meeting in Dallas last June, nor the diocesan Pastoral Policy on Sexual Abuse of Minors by Church Personnel applies to bishops. Bishop Ryan, however, has agreed to cooperate fully in the investigation.

Under the diocesan policy, an allegation would normally be referred to Diocesan Review Board, a panel of mostly lay people appointed by the bishop to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. Since some members of the committee were appointed during the episcopacy of Bishop Ryan, Bishop Lucas has asked the review board of another diocese to handle the investigation, thus avoiding the possibility of a conflict of interest among members of the local review board. Any determination about Bishop Ryan's status would ultimately be made by the Holy See

Bishop George Lucas has forwarded all information to the Washington, D.C., office of the papal nuncio, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo.

No deadline has been set for a conclusion to the investigation, but Bishop Lucas has said he hopes for a timely resolution.

Here's the real dope, which I've been following for a long time now. (I joined Roman Catholic Faithful some while back and regularly get their newsletters.) Bishop Ryan had been picking up young male prostitutes for years and had been sexually harrassing a young priest and actually sleeping with him. (That has been since fully documented.) In addition he staffed the Springfied diocese with actively gay priests who screened and scotched all complaints by victims of sexual abuse. As if this weren't enough, he was responsible for introducing a sexually explicit, gay-friendly, sex education curriculum into parochial elementary schools, complete with the run-down on sado-masochism, anal and oral sex, and how to fit condoms on bananas. Parents protested and appealed to Rome. They got no response. Roman Catholic Faithful got involved and hand-carried dossiers of information to Rome. No response. So it got some lawyers and went public.

Many of the male prostitutes who had slept with Ryan were under age. One of them admitted to the media he had been picked up by Ryan on many occasions, describing Ryan's most intimate secrets and habits, describing his bedroom, describing his body. Ryan resigned within days. It took the media, not Rome, to get rid of this pervert who was actively corrupting Catholic parochial school children.

Give me a break. If anything angers me more than what churchmen like this have been allowed to do, it is the response from Catholic lay people who refuse to accept the horrifying truth that their religious leaders--including high Vatican officials--are corrupt. Rome is complicit--and so are the bishops who knew about Ryan and not only tolerated his shenanigans but promoted him to the episcopacy in the first place knowing what he was. This is corruption, plain and simple.