24360: (news) Chamberlain: Former priest-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   INDIANAPOLIS, Feb 25 (AP) -- A former Roman Catholic priest once accused
of child sexual abuse in Indiana was detained and questioned this week by
police in Haiti amid allegations his residence was used to plan a massive
prison break there.
   Ron Voss was questioned for more than five hours Wednesday in the Feb.
19 prison break at Haiti's largest prison in which nearly 500 inmates
escaped and one guard was killed.
   Police also seized Voss' passport during the raid on Visitation House, a
stopover residence Voss runs for missionary teams visiting Haiti.
   Twelve officers wielding machine guns entered the house to search for
escaped prisoners, weapons and evidence linking it to the prison break
plot, said Bill Quigley, a law school professor at Loyola University in New
Orleans who is helping to set up a medical clinic in Haiti. He said it was
"absolutely ludicrous" to suggest that Voss was involved in the prison
break.
   Quigley said Voss may have been targeted by Haiti's current government
because of his friendship with former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who
was overthrown in a coup last year.
   Voss moved to Haiti after child abuse allegations were made against him
in Indiana in 1988. He officially left the priesthood several years later.
   An investigative report by The Indianapolis Star in 1997 documented
claims that Voss abused eight male teenagers while serving as a priest in
the Lafayette Diocese, which includes counties north of Indianapolis.
   The Star's report documented sexual abuse claims against a total 16
priests and the diocese's efforts to keep those claims quiet.
   In Haiti, Voss has been a leader in the Parish Twinning Program of the
Americas, through which hundreds of Catholic congregations nationwide
assist needy ones in Haiti. The charity, based in Nashville, Tenn., says it
has aided Haitian parishes that serve more than 2 million people, about a
quarter of the Caribbean nation's population.
   In October, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said Voss
posed a continuing threat to the children of Haiti because of their
vulnerability in the impoverished country. An executive with the charity,
Theresa Patterson, was asked to cut ties with Voss by the Nashville Diocese
after it faced questions from clergy-abuse activists and The Dallas Morning
News.
   In a January telephone interview with the Dallas paper, Voss said he was
dealing with his sexual disorder on a "confidential and personal and
psychological basis."
   "I feel pretty good about the way we've handled it," he said.