Denver Newsroom, Jun 29, 2021 / 17:01 pm (CNA).
The bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts has announced the appointment of two social workers to lead an independent task force responding to sex abuse.
Bishop William Byrne, who took the helm in Springfield in Dec. 2020, announced Monday that clinical social worker Irene Woods and Orlando Isaza, a social worker and community activist would co-chair the task force. The goal of the task force is to draft a report on how the diocese can better respond to cases of sex abuse.
The task force had originally been chaired by retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Daniel Ford.
St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield, Mass./ John Phelan/wikimedia CC BY SA 3.0
Lawyers for an alleged abuse victim in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts have asked the state’s chief justice to assign a special judge from outside western Massachusetts to the case, citing a potential for undue influence from people associated with the diocese.
The alleged victim, identified as John Doe, claims he suffered trauma as a result of the diocese’s mishandling of an abuse allegation he brought against the late Christopher Weldon, Bishop of Springfield from 1950 to 1977.
Doe, a former altar boy, alleges that Bishop Weldon, along with two priests of the Springfield diocese, repeatedly abused him in the 1960s, and that he first remembered his abuse in 2013. Weldon died in 1982.
Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski at the tomb of St. Peter during an ad limina visit Nov. 7, 2019. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Denver Newsroom, Feb 12, 2021 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis is accused in a new lawsuit of covering up abuse allegations in his former diocese of Springfield, MA, which he led from 2014 until last year.
The plaintiff claims he suffered trauma as a result of the diocese’s mishandling of an abuse allegation he brought against Christopher J. Weldon, bishop of Springfield from 1950-1977.
Rozanski has admitted that the diocese mishandled the abuse case, which the plaintiff says he first brought to the diocese’s attention in November 2014.
Springfield s bishop promises, like Peter, to love Jesus, care for his people On: 12/16/2020, By Rebecca Drake, , In: Local .Bishop William D. Byrne poses for a photo during his installation Dec. 14, 2020, as the bishop of Springfield, Mass., at St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield. (CNS photo/Gillian Jones, The Catholic Mirror) .Cardinal Sean P. O Malley of Boston lays his hands on the head of Bishop William D. Byrne during the bishop s installation Mass Dec. 14, 2020, as the head of the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., at St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield. (CNS photo/Gillian Jones, The Catholic Mirror) .Bishop William D. Byrne speaks during his installation Dec. 14, 2020, as the bishop of Springfield, Mass., at St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield. (CNS photo/Gillian Jones, The Catholic Mirror)
Dec 17, 2020 catholic news service
Bishop William D. Byrne speaks during his installation Dec. 14, 2020, as the bishop of Springfield, Mass., at St. Michael s Cathedral in Springfield. (Credit: Gillian Jones/The Catholic Mirror via CNS.)
Called to the episcopacy in the middle of a pandemic, in mid-December, in wintry Western New England, Springfield Bishop William D. Byrne followed in the footsteps of St. Peter to stand beside the Risen Lord and promise to love Jesus and care for his people.
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts Called to the episcopacy in the middle of a pandemic, in mid-December, in wintry Western New England, Springfield Bishop William D. Byrne followed in the footsteps of St. Peter to stand beside the Risen Lord and promise to love Jesus and care for his people.