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Associated Press - March 30, 2009 7:45 PM ET
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The founder of a religious order that treats Roman Catholic priests who molest children concluded in the 1950s that offenders were unlikely to change and should not be returned to ministry.
The Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald expressed that view in letters turned over recently to lawyers representing abuse victims. In one 1957 letter, Fitzgerald told Bishop Matthew Brady of New Hampshire that abusive priests only pretended to repent and change so they could keep doing what they were doing.
The documents challenge recent statements by U.S. bishops that they didn't realize the risk of moving predators among parishes until relatively recently.
Fitzgerald set up a treatment center for wayward priests in New Mexico that has since closed.
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