Catholic officials quietly admit priest is "credibly accused" molester

Apparently without notifying parents, parishioners or the public, Toledo Catholic officials quietly admitted this year that another of their priests molested at least one child.

On Bishop Daniel Thomas' website, evidently with no word to current or former church-goers or his one-time co-workers, the Bishop deemed at least one child sexual abuse allegation against Fr. Michael G. Madden to be "substantiated" and added his name to the list of "credibly accused" Toledo area clerics. We believe this posting was made within the last two weeks. Fr. Madden died in 2007, after working in the diocese for more than 40 years.

Toledo officials did not disclose how many abuse reports Fr. Madden faced. Nor did they reveal when his victims spoke up or what diocesan staffers did when that happened. Accordingly, it's unclear whether the priest was accused while he was alive and if so, whether law enforcement was contacted.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, cannot help but wonder how many other abusive clerics the Diocese might still be hiding, or which others the Diocese has acknowledged without public notification? The 2002 Dallas Charter promised parishioners and the public that Catholic bishops would be open and transparent about clergy sex crimes, but Bishop Thomas does not appear to be honoring this pledge.

Fr. Madden was at nearly a dozen churches throughout northwest Ohio during his career, which began in 1962. He worked at St. Rose Catholic Parish in Lima, St. Wendelin Parish in Fostoria, St. Michael Parish in Kelley’s Island, Mother of Sorrow Parish in Put-in-Bay, St. Thomas Aquinas and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Martin and Bono, two parishes in Sandusky (Holy Angels Parish and Saints Peter and Paul Parish) and four parishes in Toledo (St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, Community of the Risen Christ, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish and St. Catherine Parish.

In addition, Fr. Madden worked at the St. Bernadine Home in Fremont, at Siena Heights College in Adrian, Michigan, at what was then the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, and with Retrouvaille (a program for couples with troubled marriages).

A native of Sandusky and graduate of Central Catholic High School in Toledo, Fr. Madden attended Saint Meinrad Seminary College in Indiana, St. Mary's Seminary in Cincinnati, and Xavier University in Cincinnati.

We hope anyone who saw, suspected or suffered Fr. Madden's crimes will find some long overdue consolation in the fact that he's finally been publicly exposed as an abuser, even if this disclosure was apparently not done publicly. Despite the fact that Catholic officials have long claimed that they're now being transparent about their sex offending clerics, this does not seem to be what happened in Toledo this year.

We also hope that anyone who may have been hurt by Fr. Madden will find the strength to tell trusted sources like friends, family, therapists or support groups like ours.

CONTACT: Claudia Vercellotti, SNAP Toledo ([email protected], 419-345-9291), Melanie Sakoda, SNAP Survivor Support Director ([email protected], 925-708-6175), Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Interim Executive Director ([email protected], 814- 341-8386)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for more than 35 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)


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