Cumberland pastor indicted on child abuse charges
Frederick County authorities have filed child abuse charges against a Catholic priest for alleged offenses against an altar boy in 1976, the Associated Press reports.
Monsignor Thomas Bevan, 73, of Cascade, who was removed as pastor of St. Patrick Church in Cumberland last August, was released on $25,000 bail Thursday, the AP reports. He was indicted on two counts of child abuse Jan. 22 but the charges were kept sealed until Thursday, when an arrest warrant was served.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lindell Angel says Bevan sexually abused a 10-year-old boy in 1976 when Bevan was associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Frederick, the AP reports.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore removed Bevan in August pending an investigation into allegations by an individual that Bevan abused him on a number of occasions when he was a student at the parish school of St. John Catholic Church in Frederick during the mid-1970s. In 2005, the archdiocese had investigated a similar allegation by a different individual, but concluded that there was not sufficient evidence at the time to remove him.
After the archdiocese announced Bevan’s removal in August, two more individuals reported that he had abused them when they were students at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School in Middle River during the mid-1970s, O’Brien said. None of the individuals knew any of the others.
In November, the archdiocese concluded that allegations of child sexual abuse against Bevan were credible and announced it would not allow him to return to active ministry. Bevan denied the allegations of the four individuals, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien wrote in a letter to parishioners at St. Patrick.
O’Brien said counseling assistance had been offered to the four individuals and to Bevan. O’Brien said Bevan’s faculties to function as a priest have been permanently revoked, and Bevan has agreed that he will no longer act publicly as a priest.
Ordained in 1963, Bevan was associate pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middle River from 1963 to 1974, associate pastor of St. John in Frederick from 1974 to 1979 and pastor of St. Mark in Fallston from 1979 to 1991. He was a temporary administrator at St. Mary in Cumberland from 1991 to 1992 and at St. Patrick in Mount Savage in 1992.
While at Mount Carmel, he taught at the parish high school; while at St. John, he taught at Mount St. Mary's. He also has been executive director of the Secretariat for Priestly Life & Ministry for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops), and has worked in the archdiocese's Office of Clergy Education.
Comments
I met Fr. Bevan in the early 1990s. At that time, he was working with the bishops' committee on child sex abuse. . . .
David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP-Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 7234 Arsenal Street, St. Louis MO 63143 (314 566 9790), SNAPnetwork.org, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
Posted by: david clohessy | February 5, 2010 6:11 PM
A comment?...laughter PAY ATTENTION !
In 300 years the RCC will refer to these times as one in which the church was falsely and malignantly attacked by atheists, non-believers, government and Satanic enemies of Christianity. "Against a massive effort to discredit the piety and chasteness of the clergy with accusations of heinous crimes, the church and her followers fought a protracted battle against this evil... eventually triumphing in the name of Jesus and to the greater glory of the mother church."
I assure you that this will come to pass...this has always been the strategy of the criminal enterprise called Catholicism.
Posted by: owlafaye | February 5, 2010 8:56 PM
Owlafaye,
You hit the nail on the head--the subterfuge that is the Catholic Church, is a criminal enterprise and a wealthy one at that--watch the Catholics crop up on this blog--a crop of ditto heads calling the Church a fountain of falsely maligned wisdom, a spring well of the Lord--the Church is pastmaster at this duplicity and the gullible ones are far too many to count.
Ravensfan Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | February 6, 2010 10:03 AM
Anon - Like any bigot you assume we are all the same. While there are times your comment on being falsely maligned is true this isn't one of those times. The Church by denying and hiding the problem brought the all this on itself. Until the Church stands up admits all of it’s past sins in this there will never be closure for the victims or itself. So far the only ditto head as you so elegantly put it is you taking yet another opportunity to preach your own message of anger and spite. Sometimes I even wonder if you actually care about the victims or just see it as another opportunity to attack. In this case the prosecution needs to do what it can to get justice for the victims and punish those responsible. Hopefully the prosecutor has a sound case.
Posted by: ravensfan | February 9, 2010 10:00 AM
The witch hunt continues...
Posted by: Reason | February 9, 2010 6:20 PM
Look Ravensfan,
Reason follows with the lack of reason that the witch hunt continues--you don't want me to stereotype the current Catholic crop--as long as I see many like Reason on these blogs, I have no reason to believe that the members of the Catholic Church see the sexual corruption of the Church as an immediate threat to children. Of course, I care about the victims--I know some of them. The Church standing up and admitting what happened will not set things right. Your piece of trivial nonsense tells me you know little about the consequences of sexual abuse-- life long depression, inability to form relationships, suicide, guilt, shame and physical incapacitation. The church can stand up and admit, damn well all of its past sins. That won't erase the number of lives ruined and continue to be ruined by the Church's forced celibacy policy or its many misguided principles. You are an excuse monger for your belief system Ravensfan and your suggestion for the healing of the victims smacks of the type of patronization the church practices. "Boys and gals, the Church will stand up and admit its mistakes and now you can have closure. Go forth and heal. The robins are singing in the branches and all is right with the world!" As long you are neither the psychiatrist nor the parent nor the spouse of one of these kids--now in adulthood--and as long as you are also an obdurate adherent of and advocate for the Church--I suppose you can afford to be highminded, philosophical, forgiving and let bygones be bygones, with a plea to the Church to come clean, your lame cure for what ails these children.
Ravensfan Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | February 10, 2010 12:23 PM
Anon – By judging all of us to be like Reason you display the very same attributes as Reason. Where exactly did I say the by admitting sins and doing what it can to make amends to victims would ever completely erase the trauma of the past?
It sounds more like I hit the nail on the head and you realize it to me. You don’t care about the victims or you’d be spending more time talking about them and less attacking the church or me. You use them as a tool to use plain and simple in your personal anti-Catholic crusade. That’s why you drag celibacy and other policies into it. You really have no interest in the problem, putting an end to it or doing the little that can be done to try and help victims recover as best they can. You don’t even discuss justice by prosecuting offenders or of those who tried to hide the abuse. In the end you are what I said and it makes you angry that I see through your façade of concern for the victims.
Posted by: ravensfan | February 12, 2010 11:03 AM
Prosecuting offenders is for the courts to do--not for the Church to do--and the victims have gone to the authorities and that should follow, particularly if statute of limitation laws are relaxed Ravensfan. Hopefully the Church will not be a hindrance by hiding the offenders, as it has done in the past. The little that can be done Ravensfan is not a mea culpa from the Church. The little that can be done is to change the culture and atmosphere in the church that engenders and promotes this behavior--you may not agree but I believe that the celibacy mandate is a big cause of his problem. When you are not allowed to marry or be openly gay then you pick on the smallest victims under your care and authority to release your pent up sexual urges.
I also think the little remedies that you suggest will do diddly squat for the victims. What the church is going to do as it moves forward--successful prevention of future pedophilia and abuse may be things that could assuage victims. All the rest of the bilge you spill about me Ravensfan--not worth a penny.
Ravensafan Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | February 12, 2010 7:02 PM
Anon - I completely agree criminal prosecution is an issue for secular law as established and the courts. I also agree the Church needs to do far more than simply an admission of fault. However, no real change in atmosphere can come about until after that mea culpa can it? You are right I don’t see celibacy as the problem. Since these men are pedophiles I don’t see where removing celibacy would do any more than possibly keep some of them out of the Church. However, they would still have found ways to prey on the young. Even if celibacy was eliminated and personally I have no problem with that idea it would only benefit heterosexual males. The Church will never permit gay married priests. Regardless of how you view the Bible since the Church views it as the sacred Word of God and there are references in both testaments which condemn homosexual acts it won’t help gay men release their pent up sexual urges as you put it. That of course won’t work. Had you responded this way earlier I wouldn’t have made the accusations I made. I apologize for making them but from looking at your previous posts it certainly appeared as if you were more interested in bashing the Church then finding solutions and helping victims.
Posted by: ravensfan | February 16, 2010 11:26 AM