Victim’s request is considered
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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, October 10, 2006 |
The phone call went to Indianapolis Friday afternoon, right after the meeting.
Someone from Davenport was letting the Rev. Mark Powell know that the board of directors at St. Ambrose University agreed to study his idea. A subcommittee is to spend the next several months “examining” whether the O’Keefe Library on the St. Ambrose campus should be renamed.
Powell, an Ambrose alumnus and former seminary student, asked for the name change. He was sexually abused, he said, by several priests during the late 1970s and early 1980s and reported the molestation to then-Bishop Gerald O’Keefe of the Davenport Diocese.
“I was told to keep it quiet,” Powell said. “The actions of Bishop O’Keefe let down the entire Diocese of Davenport.
“I don’t think that should be honored.”
At the time the library was dedicated in O’Keefe’s name about 10 years ago, O’Keefe already had given sworn depositions related to sex-abuse cases and lawsuits against the diocese. In those statements, he disclosed his knowledge of the decades of abuse.
At that time in 1991, O’Keefe said he still believed that he had no obligation to report the sexual abuse of children to authorities. He also said that he would not have sent a priest to a psychologist for counseling for pedophilia if he had known the psychologist was required by law to report his crimes.
O’Keefe died in 2000.
Immediately after Powell disclosed to St. Ambrose President Ed Rogalski that he was told by O’Keefe to keep his sexual abuse quiet, Rogalski said he would ask the college board whether the library should be renamed.
“Among the actions the St. Ambrose University Board of Directors took at its Oct. 6 meeting was to consider a request of the board to rename O’Keefe Library,” college spokeswoman Jane Kettering said Monday. “The renaming request involves serious issues that merit further discussion and inquiry by the board.
“A board subcommittee will look into this matter more thoroughly and report their findings at the spring meeting. The board looks forward to addressing the matter fully at its March meeting.”
Powell immediately was told of the board’s decision.
“I think it’s a good sign,” he said Monday. “The final decision is what will be noteworthy, but this is a good process.”
He was told that part of the process of deciding whether to remove O’Keefe’s name from the prominent campus building will be considering what new name to give it. Although he said he does not expect to be consulted on the renaming, he said he could name several priests associated with St. Ambrose who would be worthy.
“There’s Father Herman Strub, and I also have a lot of respect for Father Edmond Dunn,” he said. “Even a joint name would be great.”
One of the priests that Powell has accused of molesting him is the defrocked Father Bill Wiebler, who died Sept. 30.
“He died on my 47th birthday,” Powell said. “The respect and consideration I’ve been shown in this through the people at St. Ambrose, which is a place I loved, has been a wonderful, cathartic process for me.”
Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.
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