AUGUSTA – After a two-year investigation, Maine’s attorney general Tuesday announced that Maine’s Catholic Diocese for years “placed children and adolescents at risk” by hiding information about sexually abusive priests from the public.

Attorney General Steven Rowe also said the behavior of eight priests – most of whom still live in Maine – was so troubling he has forwarded their files to their local police departments with the recommendation that the men be monitored.

Rowe said his office reviewed 53 cases spanning a 75-year period involving allegations of abuse by priests and other church workers. The report confirmed the claims made by victims: Priests accused of abuse were sent for treatment and returned to a parish; parishioners were not told of the risk; and settlement of the cases involved victims promising to remain silent about their abuse.

One of the far-reaching cases cited by Rowe involved a 6-year-old Maine girl whose parents reported her abuse by a priest in 1958. The diocese reassigned the priest without telling his new parishioners, Rowe said. When that priest died in 1990, 10 women came forward reporting that he sexually abused them between 1960 and 1972 in southern and mid-Maine. At the time, the victims were between 8 to 13 years old, Rowe said.

Despite the findings of his investigation, Rowe concluded that because most of the cases were too old and exceeded the state’s statute of limitations, they could not be prosecuted. The AG found that the diocese holds no criminal liability.

Three priests and two brothers have been prosecuted for sex abuse of minors in Maine between 1984 and 1993. Rowe said he could not release the names of other allegedly abusive church leaders because they were never prosecuted.

However, alleged pedophilic behavior by eight priests still alive worries him to the point that he has contacted the police departments where the men are now living and has recommended that the men be monitored. Rowe said he could not release the locations of the men.

Specifically, the Attorney General’s Office concluded:

• On at least six occasions between 1958 to 1993 an alleged offending priest was sent for treatment and returned to his parish or a new parish. In 1997 the church began informing parish leaders, but never told the laity.

• In four cases, after an allegedly abusive priest was treated the bishop determined the priest could not return to the ministry.

• In most cases, the diocese did not receive information about alleged sexual abuse by a church leader until more than a decade after the alleged acts occurred.

• When making settlements with victims, the diocese routinely requested a vow of silence from victims as part of civil, monetary settlements.

Diocese spokesman Marc Mutty said late Tuesday afternoon he could not comment on the attorney general’s report. He said the church had not yet released a statement.

Michael Doherty of Lisbon Falls, a member of the Voice of the Faithful who says he survived sexual abuse at Chevrus School in Portland, said the AG “did good work” in the report.

“He’s done what he can do,” Doherty said of Rowe. “The report shows the diocese has only done what they have to do. … It shouldn’t be a legal question for them. They’re supposed to be the moral guides in our society.”

The report shows the bishop knowingly transferred priests who had credible allegations of sexual abuse, “and in our opinion that’s a crime,” added Michael Sweatt of Portland, spokesman for Voice of the Faithful who also identified himself as an abuse survivor.

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