Priest who says he was abused won’t resign

SEATTLE – A priest who announced in church that he had been molested by a priest as a child has notified parishioners he is taking a leave of absence rather than resigning.

In a letter sent Wednesday to parishioners of St. Brendan Catholic Church in suburban Bothell, the Rev. Lawrence Minder said the Seattle Archdiocese had granted him a temporary leave of absence rather than accept his offer to resign from the parish.

Last month Minder said during weekend Masses he had been molested by a priest 30 years ago and that the priest remained on assignment after he reported what had happened.

He said then that he would resign rather than submit to a psychological evaluation with results to be made available to the archdiocese.

Archdiocese officials said at the time they thought Minder had agreed to undergo an examination after meeting with Archbishop Alexander J. Brunett to discuss his use of alcohol. Court records show Minder was arrested in 1999 and paid a $1,115 fine for drunken driving.

In his letter Minder wrote that he had reached agreement with his superiors on unspecified limits to access to his medical records.

The letter, which said he would leave Thursday for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., outlined his reasons for discussing what he experienced decades earlier.

“I believe a great deal of good can come when priests who were abused by other clergy can feel free to step forward, disclose and get help,” he wrote. “Thus far, the bishops seem to have ignored the needs of clergy in their own ranks who suffer the same needs as other victims of clergy sexual abuse.”

Minder has not publicly named the priest he said abused him, but Russell Mazzola, chairman of the Yakima Diocese’s lay advisory board, said it was the Rev. Richard Scully.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the Yakima Diocese settled two claims that had been filed against Scully.

The Yakima Diocese sent Scully to a program for sexual offenders in Jemez Springs, N.M., and Scully subsequently went to the Amarillo Diocese in Texas in 1989.

The Amarillo Diocese stripped Scully of his ministerial powers in 2002, reportedly after receiving complaints about him that were not related to abuse, according to officials in Texas.