CONCORD (NH)
Boston Globe
By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 12/11/2002
he Roman Catholic Diocese of New Hampshire yesterday became the first diocese in the country to admit it may have violated criminal law by failing to protect children from sexually abusive priests.
Facing the likelihood that the diocese would be indicted Friday on multiple counts of violating New Hampshire’s child endangerment statute, Bishop John B. McCormack signed a legal agreement with the state acknowledging that the attorney general’s office had accumulated sufficient evidence to secure convictions.
”The church in New Hampshire fully acknowledges and accepts responsibility for failures in our system that contributed to the endangerment of children,” McCormack said in a statement. ”We commit ourselves in a public and binding way to address every weakness in our structure.”
