Episcopal diocese asks victims to come forward

Staff report

erie, pa.

At least nine victims have reported abuse by a former Episcopalian bishop, and the current bishop is inviting other victims to come forward.

Bishop Sean Rowe announced in July to the 34 churches in the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania that he knew of four victims of abuse by the late Donald Davis, who was bishop from 1974 to 1991. He said then that one of the victims contacted him in March. He investigated and learned of the other three. They were children when the abuse occurred, he said.

In another letter released Sunday, Bishop Rowe said five more women contacted him after his initial statement. Three said they were abused as girls and two said they were harassed as adults.

Bishop Rowe said some of the cases were known to national church authorities but had never been made public.

He said that as part of the resolution of those cases, Davis resigned from the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops in 1994. Davis, then retired and living in Florida, also helped pay for counseling for two of the victims.

Davis died in 2007.

“If there are other victims who are still considering whether to come forward, I urge them to contact me,” Bishop Rowe said in his letter Sunday.

“As I wrote in my initial letter, I cannot undo the grievous wrongs that Bishop Davis has done, nor take away the pain of his victims, but I can do my best to ensure that this diocese continues to tell the truth and seek healing and reconciliation for those who have been harmed,” he said.

The diocese, based in Erie, includes churches in Hermitage, Sharon, Greenville, Grove City and New Castle.