Catholic diocese on trial
By Dave Forster The Forum Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The Catholic Diocese of Fargo could face "devastating" allegations of priest misconduct this week at a trial for employee discrimination, its attorney said Monday.
The lawyer for Melissa Enebo, a former secretary for the diocese, said he wants to include evidence of misconduct by priests to show the diocese treated them differently than Enebo. Enebo claims gender discrimination in her lawsuit because she said she was fired in 1999 for getting pregnant outside of marriage.
Benjamin Thomas, the diocese attorney, argued at pretrial motions Monday in Cbutt County District Court that priests aren't considered employees of the diocese.
Only the Vatican can appoint and remove priests, Thomas said. Also, it is the Code of Canon Law, not state labor laws, that dictate how priests are disciplined, he said. Therefore, priests don't provide a fair comparison in Enebo's case, Thomas said.
Enebo's attorney, Robert Schultz, pointed out later that some priests are considered employees of the diocese and are under the bishop's oversight.
Thomas said allowing allegations of priest misconduct as evidence would require an expert for the diocese to explain Canon Law, complicating an already complex trial.
"That would be hopelessly confusing to a jury," Thomas said.
He also expressed the diocese's concerns about unwanted public exposure, saying the allegations would be "devastating to all involved and would invite a media circus."
"The diocese is very adamant that that information should not and could not be disclosed," he said.
CHRISTIAN CHURCH HIDES INFO ABOUT ABUSER PRIESTParishioners seek answers about priest By Michael Pound, Times Staff Beaver County Times and Allegheny Times Monday, August 29, 2005 Ellwood City - Sunday's noon Mbutt at Holy Redeemer Parish in Ellwood City...
East Central District Judge John Irby ruled after the motion hearing that he would review any evidence of priest misconduct in private. He would then decide whether to allow the evidence in the trial.
Irby ordered the diocese to provide records of lawsuits of which the diocese was a party going back to Jan. 1, 1985.
A ruling by Irby on another motion struck a different blow to the diocese's defense plans. The judge ruled that the diocese cannot offer Enebo's claim to the North Dakota Department of Labor as evidence.
In the claim, Thomas said, Enebo wrote she was "cohabitating" with her child's father. That statement runs counter to what she said when she was questioned during depositions, Thomas said.
But Schultz said state law makes those records inadmissible, and Irby agreed.
Thomas called the cohabitation issue the crux of his defense. The diocese says it fired Enebo because of her refusal to even try to change her living situation when it conflicted with Catholic teaching and the diocese, Thomas said.
The trial begins today with jury selection and is scheduled to last through Friday.
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"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so send peace, but a sword. "For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. - Matthew 10:34-36.
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