FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — A bishop is vowing to relocate a priest who’s living in an Iowa retirement home close to a Roman Catholic school despite his history of sexually abusing boys. The announcement follows an Associated Press story exposing the church’s three-decade cover-up of abuse by the Rev. Jerome Coyle. Coyle admitted in 1986 that he sexually abused approximately 50 boys over 20 years while serving at several Iowa parishes.
The Diocese of Sioux City didn’t tell police or the public, instead transferring Coyle to a treatment center in New Mexico and stripping him of his parish assignments. In June, the diocese moved Coyle to the Marian Home in Fort Dodge, across the street from Saint Edmonds Catholic School. School administrators weren’t informed. Bishop R. Walker Nickless says Coyle won’t stay there.