Bishop pleads cooperation with probe of priest

SAVANNAH - The Bishop of Savannah said Thursday that his diocese fully cooperated with a civil investigation of a priest arrested for child abuse. <br> <br> Bishop Kevin Boland also sent a letter to the seven churches where Reverend Wayland Brown served during his tenure in the Diocese of Savannah, asking parishioners who may have been abused by the priest to come forward. <br> <br> Brown was arrested Wednesday at his home in Savannah on a Montgomery County, Maryland, warrant alleging he sexually abused a 12-year-old boy in the early 1970s while studying at a Washington seminary. <br> <br> Brown waived his extradition hearing today, meaning he will likely be sent to Maryland within the next ten days. <br> <br> In a statement, Boland said the diocese first learned of the charges in April. <br> <br> Boland said, ``We fully cooperated with the authorities and we offered counseling to the alleged victim. We do not know his name.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The victim, now 41, says that Brown abused him at the man&#39;s home and in the rectory of St. Rose of Lima church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, between 1973 and 1975. The abuse also allegedly occurred at Brown&#39;s Washington Theological Seminary dorm room and on trips the two took to Georgia.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193110