Bishop opposes abuse policy

EVANSVILLE -- Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger said his experience working with a priest who admitted having a sexual relationship with a teenager but later repented helped motivate him to vote against new policies covering Roman Catholic priests.\nGettelfinger, leader of the Evansville diocese, was one of seven bishops to vote Wednesday against the policies aimed at preventing child sex abuse by priests.\nGettelfinger said the policies would give bishops the power to remove priests from public ministry after one act of sexual abuse of a minor, but would not give them the discretion to return priests to the ministry who had sought forgiveness and experienced a spiritual conversion.\nHis arguments were based largely on the case of the Rev. Michael Allen of Celestine, who admitted to a sexual relationship with a teenager more than 20 years ago, Gettelfinger told the Evansville Courier & Press for a story Thursday.\nAllen was later removed as pastor of the parish about 50 miles northeast of Evansville.\nIt is unfair, Gettelfinger said, to subject priests to new regulations years after any abuse.\nGettelfinger said he was sympathetic to the victims and was trying to maintain a balance of sensitivity to the victims and fairness to priests.