Lexington Bishop Williams resigns
Lexington Bishop J. Kendrick Williams resigned yesterday, maintaining his innocence and saying he hoped to free the diocese he founded from the turmoil of sex-abuse allegations against him.
By Peter Smith
June 12, 2002 - Williams, who has led the diocese since its founding in 1988, is the third U.S. bishop to resign this year since the scandal over past sexual misconduct by priests began rocking the Catholic Church.
In a prepared statement yesterday, Williams said, ''I do not want my resignation to give any credence to the allegations made against me. I offered my resignation to the Holy Father, stating that I believe that by my stepping down, the diocese can rid itself of the cloud which hangs over it and me at this time.''
Williams, 65, has been accused of sexual or emotional abuse by three men in lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Louisville, where Williams worked from his ordination in 1963 until he was named an auxiliary bishop of Covington in 1984.
The Vatican said Pope John Paul II accepted Williams' resignation, submitted under church law for ''illness or some other grave reason.''
''The last three weeks have been the most challenging of my life,'' said Williams, who has repeatedly denied ever abusing anyone.
''Through agonizing days and sleepless nights, I have thought about the 39 years of my priesthood and the privilege laid upon me,'' he said. ''I recognize my shortcomings, but I believe that I have been a good priest and bishop. This makes the allegations against me all the more painful.''
Last month, Williams placed himself on leave pending the results of a lawsuit and an internal investigation, after the first allegation surfaced that he sexually abused a Louisville boy in 1981.
In accordance with the Diocese of Lexington's policies on sexual misconduct, Williams said at the time that he would refrain from all pastoral ministry while the matter was investigated. He announced that while on leave he would not celebrate Masses, ordinations, confirmations or other public services.
A diocesan board of priests yesterday appointed the Rev. Robert Nieberding administrator of the diocese, pending the naming of a bishop, according to Richard Watson, a deacon at Christ the King Cathedral who attended the meeting of the board. Nieberding, vicar general of the diocese and pastor of Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary Church in Lexington, has been performing the bishop's administrative duties since Williams went on leave.
Williams remains a bishop, though when a bishop resigns under such circumstances he normally refrains from public ministry, according to the Rev. Mark Spalding, judicial vicar of the Archdiocese of Louisville and an expert in canon law.
Any future assignments or disciplinary actions regarding Williams would be decided by the pope in consultation with his diplomatic representative in Washington, Spalding said.
Williams conveyed his resignation offer to the pope on May 31 through the Vatican's diplomatic representative in Washington, according to diocesan spokesman Thomas Shaughnessy.
Louisville Archbishop Thomas Kelly -- whose archdiocese faces 119 lawsuits alleging abuse by 18 priests and employees, including Williams -- said he was saddened by Williams' departure.
''He has been a great servant of the church, and his leadership and achievements will always be a gift to us,'' Kelly said in a statement issued yesterday.
''Bishop Williams' resignation is a personal loss for me as well,'' Kelly added. ''He has been a brother, counselor and friend to me for 20 years. May God bring peace to his pastor's heart as he looks to the future. May we always remember the blessings that have come to us through his ministry.''
Attorney William McMurry, who represents the three plaintiffs alleging abuse by Williams, said the resignation was good news.
''I'm disappointed that publicly he won't accept personal responsibility,'' said McMurry, who represents more than 100 of the plaintiffs suing the Archdiocese of Louisville and accusing priests or other employees of abuse. ''I think this is more church spin, but the result is a good result for all the children of the Catholic community.''
McMurry also criticized an attempt by the Archdiocese of Louisville to ask Jefferson Circuit Court to enforce a state law that requires the sealing of sex-abuse lawsuits that involve children and are more than five years old.
''This result would never have occurred if these allegations and the lawsuits were filed under seal,'' McMurry said.
In a suit filed May 21, James W. Bennett of Louisville accused Williams of molesting him once when Bennett was an altar boy around age 12 at the Church of Our Lady in Louisville.
In a second suit filed May 31, plaintiff David Hall said Williams molested him more than 30 years ago in a confessional when Hall was an 18-yearold student at St. Catherine High School in New Haven in Nelson County.
''I think he is finally seeing the writing on the wall,'' said Hall of Williams' decision to resign. ''I wasn't glad to hear about it -- he did some good. But I think it was only fitting.''
Thomas C. Probus sued the archdiocese Friday, alleging Williams emotionally abused him at age 12 in 1981 with sexually explicit talk when Probus sought advice for family problems.
The lawsuits do not name Williams as a plaintiff but allege, without evidence, that the archdiocese knew he ''engaged in a pattern . . . of sexually abusing children'' and failed to stop it.
Williams has staunchly defended his innocence in previous statements, saying he has ''never sexually abused anyone at any time in my life'' and did not know why anyone would say he had.
While the Diocese of Lexington is not a defendant in those lawsuits, it has had other legal troubles. A Lexington lawyer sued it on May 30 on behalf of five unnamed plaintiffs alleging abuse by unidentified priests, while a Lexington man sued June 3 accusing another priest, the Rev. Bill Fedders.
The diocese covers 50 counties of Central and Eastern Kentucky. It has 47,583 Catholics -- about 3 percent of the total population in the heavily Protestant region -- and 64 parishes, according to the diocese.
Williams' resignation comes two days before American bishops meet in Dallas, where they will face unprecedented attention as they try to decide on proposals to deal with sexual abuse by the clergy. While the controversy has simmered for more than 15 years, it erupted to an unprecedented degree in January following revelations that Boston church officials had knowingly given abusive priests new assignments.
An ad hoc study committee of bishops has recommended defrocking any priest guilty of abusing one child in the future or of abusing more than one child before now, with past abusers allowed to minister only if approved by a committee and their deeds made known to those they would work with in a new assignment.
At least 225 of the nation's more than 46,000 Roman Catholic priests have either been dismissed from their duties or resigned since the scandal flared in January, according to The Associated Press. Two have resigned as parish pastors in Louisville.
In March, the Rev. Anthony O'Connell resigned as bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., after admitting he abused a seminary student in Missouri more than 25 years ago. O'Connell's predecessor, Bishop J. Keith Symons, also resigned in 1998 after admitting molestation.
Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles was accused of abuse this year, but police cleared him of the accusation.
And last month, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland's resignation was accepted by the Vatican a day after he acknowledged paying a man $450,000 to settle a sexual misconduct allegation against him. The man was an adult at the time of the alleged misconduct.
The Vatican cited Weakland's age as an explanation. He had submitted a resignation request in April when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 and asked the Vatican to expedite it after the settlement became public.
''It's very, very rare for bishops to resign for any other reason than health or age,'' said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the national Catholic magazine America and a longtime church observer.
Church Law provides that after a bishop resigns, a small group of priests in the diocese known as the college of consulters then elects an administrator, who takes care of the diocese but is prohibited from taking new initiatives.
Pope John Paul II would then choose a successor to Williams, drawing from lists of priests recommended for promotion by their own bishops and consulting with his diplomatic representative to the United States, according to the Rev. Mark Spalding, judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of Louisville and an expert in church law.
At a noontime Mass yesterday at St. Peter Church in downtown Lexington, the Rev. Daniel Noll read Williams' written statement to those in attendance, many of whom had not yet heard the news.
Noll, the sacramental minister at St. Peter, said he was ''saddened'' to lose ''a great leader and a real minister to us.''
