The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s release of massive amounts of records about abusive priests sheds fresh light on the decades-old case against the late Rev. Leonard Abercrombie of Denver.
The new disclosure: A Denver archdiocesan official confirmed that Abercrombie’s priestly faculties were removed in response to sexual-abuse allegations. This typically means that a priest can no longer serve in public ministry.
A Colorado man sued the Denver archdiocese last month alleging that Abercrombie abused him on a camping trip in 1969 or 1970, and three other men have told The Denver Post that Abercrombie molested them too.
When Abercrombie left Colorado in 1974 to work as a veterans hospital chaplain in Southern California, allegations followed him. He is named in a lawsuit filed in 2003 by a former altar boy who alleges being abused between 1975 and 1978.
In a report Tuesday, the Los Angeles archdiocese stated it was contacted in 1993 by a reporter seeking comment about a Colorado Springs lawyer who wrote to the Vatican alleging that Abercrombie had abused him 20 years earlier.
In 1994, the vicar general of the Denver archdiocese informed a Los Angeles archdiocesan official that Abercrombie’s faculties had been withdrawn in response to sex-abuse allegations, and that Abercrombie had retired two years earlier because of poor health and was not functioning as a priest. Abercrombie died in October 1994.
The Los Angeles report, however, does not describe when the action was taken against Abercrombie. Fran Maier, chancellor for the Denver archdiocese, said Wednesday the archdiocese never discusses lay or clergy personnel issues in the media or discloses the content of personnel files.
That policy drew criticism from Troy Gray, Colorado director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
“The cat’s out of the bag,” he said. “L.A. has released information on this guy and it points right back to Denver, where he has allegations against him. The Denver archdiocese is not talking? They still cover it up.”
Said Maier: “We’ve outlined clearly, many times, how we respond to these issues, and the reasons why. We’ve shown both in word and action that we take these matters very seriously and have a sincere desire to help any victims heal. But we never resolve these matters in the public media.”
The Denver archdiocese is facing 10 other lawsuits for its handling of another priest accused of abuse, Harold Robert White.
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-820-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
