The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors involving a retired priest, church officials announced Friday.
“With deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, announce that Father Roderic Giller, OSB, who retired from parish ministry in July 2013, has been the subject of substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors during the time he was serving at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Seneca,” said the statement published in The Leaven, the archdiocese’s official newspaper.
The archdiocese and abbey first received the allegations in July 2004, the announcement said, and they were treated at the time as boundary violations would be today.
Further investigation was undertaken recently “due to updated safe environment protocols and additional information,” the statement said.
“A better understanding of the events has resulted in the allegations being substantiated,” it said. “The Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of minors, which is applied in the broadest sense of the term. In making this announcement, the archdiocese and abbey reaffirm their commitment to all who have been harmed by an agent of the church, to atone for the harm and to accompany survivors using restorative processes as they work toward healing and peace.”
The estimated period of abuse was 2004 to 2006, the archdiocese said. Giller has been removed from public ministry.
Giller was assigned to numerous parishes and schools in the archdiocese, the announcement said. It did not give a time frame of when he was at each site. Those listed are St. John, St. Benedict and St. Joseph in Atchison; St. Patrick in Atchison County; St. Ann in Hiawatha; Sacred Heart in Sabetha; St. Augustine in Fidelity; Sts. Peter and Paul in Seneca; St. Joseph in Wathena; St. Charles in Troy; and St. Benedict in Bendena.
Giller also was at St. Benedict’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Atchison. He has been placed on the archdiocesan Substantiated Clergy Offenders list.
A priest with the Order of St. Benedict, Giller was born in 1934 and ordained in 1955, according to the archdiocese.
A June 19, 2013, story in the St. Joseph News-Press about Giller’s retirement said he was a St. Joseph native whose first assignment as a priest was at St. Benedict’s Parish in Kansas City, Kansas. He also taught a senior religion class at Bishop Ward High School at the time, it said, and later drove buses for the Catholic schools in Atchison.
“The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and St. Benedict’s Abbey take all allegations of misconduct by church personnel very seriously and work to respond to survivors’ needs with urgency, respect and compassion,” the statement said. “We encourage anyone with knowledge about any misconduct by a church volunteer, employee, religious or clergy member — regardless of when the abuse may have occurred — to contact civil authorities first, and then call or text the archdiocese’s confidential report line at (913) 276-8703 or online at: www.archkck.org/reportabuse.”
An advocacy group for sexual abuse survivors said Friday that the archdiocese needs to do more to ensure people are informed about the substantiated allegations.
“The question now is: What will the church hierarchy do to warn others about this child molesting cleric and urge others with information or suspicions about him to call law enforcement?” said a statement from David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Sadly, if history is any guide, we suspect they’ll do nothing.
“This cleric is still alive. He might be prosecuted and kids might be protected. But only if caring adults speak up now.”
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