Julia Duin continues her reports:
Bill Etherington, an attorney for the diocese and CCR, said Bishop DiLorenzo was given bad information about whether the abortion could be prevented, but didn’t elaborate as to how.
“He was told it could not be stopped,” Mr. Etherington said. “It was erroneous information. He didn’t have to sign off on it. He was not personally involved.”
He added, without elaborating, that the underage abortion did not violate state law.
After learning of the federal investigation, Bishop DiLorenzo and two other bishops issued an April 29 letter to the nation’s 350 Catholic bishops detailing the botched management decisions that led to the abortion.
“He wrote the letter with the intent that word was going to get out and they should be notified of the circumstances,” Mr. Neill said.
Four CCR employees were fired over the incident, and one USCCB official who worked with its office of Migration and Refugee Services was suspended.
“They were so caught up with the plight of the young girl who already had a child,” Mr. Neill said. “She was not a Catholic. She got pregnant by her boyfriend, and she was determined not to have the baby.”
The unnamed girl had been implanted with a contraceptive device provided by CCR two months earlier, according to the April 29 letter.
Just posted at the Catholic Virginian site, the bishop’s letter on the matter:
As your Bishop, I want to express some of my personal thoughts and feelings on the monumental tragedy that we have experienced here in the Diocese. I join my sadness to yours at the loss of the life of an unborn child whose teenage mother was in the foster care of Commonwealth Catholic Charities. Because of the issues of privacy of those involved, and the ongoing legal investigations, there was, and is a need to be prudent in making any public statement.
There are many questions people have — why did it happen? Were there no checks and controls concerning hiring practices? Was there no on-going education and formation in Catholic Christian morality concerning pro-life issues and social justice questions? There are also questions about why this situation was not revealed sooner. These are some of the questions which need to be answered by the board, the administration and the staff of Commonwealth Catholic Charities.
Obviously, respect for the life of the unborn is a basic tenet of our Catholic faith and morality. I would ask all of you to pray that we correct what needs correcting and strengthen areas that need strengthening so that Catholic Charities might continue their mission of service to those in need.
The guilt and depression that many of us experience as a result of the behavior of a few is something that we will bear for a long time to come. Finally, I express my profound apology for the loss of the life of one of the most vulnerable among us, and I apologize for the profound embarrassment this has caused the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, and Catholics throughout the United States.