I lived in the A-J diocese for 18 years, before the time of Bishop Adamec. I happened to meet him several years ago, and found him to be a pleasant man. While A-J has had more than it’s share of pedophile scandal, Bishop Adamec did what he thought best for the diocese (no easy task, given the wide variety of opinions and problems). He did as well as any bishops, and he leaves the diocese in essentially better shape than he found it. I think people should pray for him and also for Bishop Bartchak, as the latter assumes his duties. From all I’ve read, Bishop Bartchak is an excellent choice. I hope the catholics there give him a warm welcome and a chance to prove himself.
I'm pinging some folks to some background on Bishop Adamec, but particularly to the final excerpted sentence in red -- "Records also show that police knew of the sex scandals but discussed them discreetly with diocese officials instead of making arrests."
This is just one more reason why these pederast priest sex scandals take forever to come to light, if ever.
In the course of the series of articles, allegations were made that Bishop Adamec had purchased his bishopric, with a multi-million dollar donation to the building of the U.S. bishops’ new headquarters in Washington, D.C. near the campus of the Catholic University of America. Allegedly, Adamec obtained the funds through the Slovak Federation. The allegations published by The Wanderer received no official response, but at that year’s meeting of the conference of bishops, the bishops spent most of their executive session discussing punitive actions against The Wanderer for publishing the expose on Adamec. "In 1996, The Wanderer published a six-week series on Bishop Adamec’s “reign of terror” in the diocese, his persecution of priests and his malicious treatment of concerned laity who objected to his lavish personal lifestyle, his tolerance of liturgical abuses, the cultivation of his cult of personality and the dubious selection of seminarians.
But more importantly...
But the offenders remained in the priesthood, and the diocese meted out such mild punishments as transfers, therapy or "rest and recreation." Not one criminal report was made. Not one priest was arrested. Only one offender was defrocked Francis Luddy and that came only after a trial and a $2 million-plus assessment against the Church. Most incidents occurred while now-retired James Hogan was bishop. But Joseph Adamec, bishop since 1987, has consistently denied a widespread problem, calling the Luddy trial "an isolated case." In the meantime, testimony about rampant pedophilia was being whispered privately to Blair County Jude Hiram Carpenter behind closed doors. Records also show that police knew of the sex scandals but discussed them discreetly with diocese officials instead of making arrests..."Officials of Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese have known of at least 10 priests implicated in sex abuse cases involving hundreds of young boys, according to public records reviewed by the Tribune-Democrat.