THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

Springfield diocese gives prosecutors abuse files

By Globe Staff, 3/15/2002

he Springfield diocese, which had been resisting giving prosecutors information about priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children, turned the records over this week, officials say.

Prosecutors responsible for the four counties in Western Massachusetts covered by the Springfield diocese said they received the information this week in letters from the diocese that were dated last Friday.

Neither the prosecutors nor a spokesman for the diocese, Michael Graziano, would say how many priests or how many alleged victims were named in the information forwarded to prosecutors.

In a statement he gave the Union-News of Springfield last month, Bishop Thomas L. Dupre said six diocese priests had been removed from parish work during the past decade for sexual abuse. Dupre said the diocese's Misconduct Commission, created in 1993 in response to criminal sex abuse charges that a diocese priest eventually pleaded guilty to, voted to remove four priests, while two were removed by the diocese.

This story ran on page A17 of the Boston Globe on 3/15/2002.
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