PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop says while he was “aware of incidents of sexual abuse” reported to church officials while working in Pennsylvania it wasn’t his job to deal with them.
Diocese of Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin served as auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh from 1992 until 1996.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh was one of six Pennsylvania dioceses named in a grand jury report that said hundreds of Catholic priests in the state molested more than 1,000 children dating to the 1940s, and church leaders covered it up.
Tobin in a statement to The Providence Journal said his responsibilities in Pittsburgh “did not include clergy assignments or clergy misconduct, but … administrative duties such as budgets, property, diocesan staff, working with consultative groups, etc.”
He was not contacted by the Pennsylvania grand jury.
