CINCINNATI ARCHDIOCESE Priests suspended on sex abuse claims

Archdiocese suspends three priests, hands out victim compensation.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Cincinnati Archdiocese said Wednesday it suspended three priests accused of sexual abuse by people awarded money from a victims' fund by an independent panel.
The panel, which announced Wednesday it exhausted the $3 million fund created by the archdiocese, found the accusations against the three priests had a "semblance of truth," Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said. The findings were sufficient to remove them from active ministry, he said.
The money was distributed among 117 of 135 people who applied for compensation for alleged abuse by priests or other church employees.
The denied claims were rejected because the people accused did not work for the Cincinnati archdiocese or the panel was unable to verify abuse, said the panel's chairman, Cincinnati lawyer Robert Stachler. The panel did not identify recipients or disclose amounts paid.
The panel, which also included two former judges, was created by a 2003 agreement between the church and the Hamilton County prosecutor to end an investigation of whether the archdiocese failed to report child sex abuse to authorities. The archdiocese pleaded no contest to failing to report crimes and was fined $10,000.
Appeals court ruling
In a separate development, a state appeals court ruled that a lawsuit filed against the archdiocese can continue even though the filing deadline was missed by a man who says a priest abused him.
Ohio's 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lima said the statute of limitations should not apply because the archdiocese did not tell authorities about the alleged abuse and concealed it.
The ruling released Monday reversed a Shelby County Common Pleas Court decision to throw out the lawsuit because the alleged victim did not file it within two years of turning 18. The archdiocese said it will appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, noting that similar lawsuits have been dismissed because filing deadlines were missed.
All new abuse claims made to the victims' compensation panel have been reported to authorities, the archdiocese said.
Priests on leave
The archdiocese now has 16 of 289 priests on administrative leave, and one was removed completely from the ministry.
The three most recent priests placed on administrative leave -- Stanley Doerger, Michael Paraniuk and David Vincent -- will be forbidden from presenting themselves as clergy and from presiding at church sacraments, Pilarczyk said. Administrative leave is the strongest action a bishop can take without the Vatican's approval.
The people who accused two of the suspended priests of abuse had complained earlier, but their accusations had not be substantiated, the archdiocese said.
A woman accused Doerger of abusing her in the 1970s at St. Rita School for the Deaf, the archdiocese said. Doerger, pastor of St. Bernard Church in Cincinnati, referred comment to the archdiocese.
A man said he was abused by Paraniuk in 1983 in a private home before Paraniuk became a chaplain for the archdiocese at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Hospital spokesman Jim Feuer said the hospital has never received an abuse allegation against Paraniuk and declined further comment.
Paraniuk said he never met his accuser, was cleared by archdiocese investigations in 1995 and 2004 and denied the accusation before the independent panel. Paraniuk said it could take two years for the Vatican to process the complaint and clear him.
"I've done nothing wrong. I'm suspended. I have to go through the process," Paraniuk said. "This hurts."
In the third case, a man told the compensation fund panel that Vincent abused him as a Cincinnati high school student around 1970, said the archdiocese, which has no record that it was informed of the complaint.
Vincent is pastor of two parishes, St. Denis in Versailles and Holy Family in Frenchtown. A telephone message seeking his comment was left with the church office.