“After a two-year investigation, the Vatican recently released a 450-plus-page report about now-defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and how the Catholic Church hierarchy failed to stop his predatory sexual behavior. Now, local Catholics are owed a similar in-depth investigation into the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and its complicity in failing to protect children from predatory sexual behaviors of local priests, such as Geoffrey Drew.
“Although the Drew story is a microcosm of McCarrick’s, the system that allowed both men to go unpunished for decades, in spite of countless complaints, exists in every Catholic diocese, including our own. Drew, former pastor of St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish, was arraigned on nine counts of rape in July 2019, finally halting his access to children.
Shortly thereafter, Concerned Catholics of Cincinnati was joined by over 1,500 area Catholics in petitioning the Vatican and 80 Catholic leaders to investigate the handling of the Drew case by the Archdiocese. In a well-researched document, our group cited complaints about Drew spanning 30 years, three counties and four parishes. These complaints were both in writing and in personal meetings with then-Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Binzer. Even Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Gmoser warned the Archdiocese to “keep an eye” on Drew, to assign him a monitor and to keep him away from children.”
By Teresa Dinwiddie-Herrmann and Jan Seidel, committee members of Concerned Catholics of Cincinnati; Dan Frondorf, Cincinnati chair of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP); and Kethy Weyer, chair of Cincinnati Voice of the Faithful, in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Cincinnati.com. They can be reached at concernedcatholicsofcincy@gmail.com — Read more …
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