NEW YORK (AP) -- Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who resigned this year as head of a watchdog panel on clergy abuse, has told a conservative Roman Catholic magazine that a clergyman tried to undermine him by circulating a letter that accused him of keeping a mistress. Keating said the letter -- which eventually made its way to top American church leaders -- also claimed he never attended Mass.
``I was stunned and outraged,'' Keating said in an article he wrote for the October issue of the magazine Crisis. ``Every word was a lie.''
Keating recounted the incident as one of the events that led to his June resignation as chairman of the National Review Board.
U.S. bishops formed the lay panel in 2001 to monitor compliance with their new discipline policy on abuse, but Keating's pointed criticism of how dioceses had handled the crisis led some Catholic leaders to question whether he should be chairman. He stepped down after angering many in the church by saying bishops were as secretive as the Mafia.
Keating, through his spokesman Dan Mahoney, declined to elaborate on the article. Mahoney said the former governor wrote the piece now because, ``he thought it was a good forum to get things out in the open.''
Keating, who has been married for 31 years, did not reveal the name of the person who wrote the letter but said it was ``purportedly written by the vicar general of Oklahoma City, a priest and the diocese's number-two official to his counterpart in Chicago.''
The Rev. Edward J. Weisenburger is listed in the 2002 Official Catholic Directory as the vicar general in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The Rev. James A. Kastner is listed as co-vicar general.
Weisenburger released a statement Tuesday night saying Kastner is in a nursing home and ``could not have been involved.'' Regarding his own role, Weisenburger said only that, ``I am unaware of Governor Keating contacting Archbishop (Eusebius) Beltran or myself about a letter purported to have been written by the vicar general of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese to the Vicar General of the Chicago Archdiocese, whom I do not know.''
Asked in a phone interview whether he was denying having written the letter, Weisenburger declined to comment further.
Keating has clashed with Beltran, the archbishop of Oklahoma City, who accused the former governor of encouraging other Catholics to skip Mass and withhold donations to protest how bishops have handled abuse claims.
Keating denied making such a statement. He said he suggested Catholics attend Mass and donate money in dioceses where bishops supported reform.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, referred questions to the National Review Board.
Justice Anne Burke of Chicago, acting chairwoman of the board, confirmed that the letter containing the accusations against Keating had been sent to someone in the Archdiocese of Chicago and that Cardinal Francis George sent a copy to her without comment.
``Obviously, he thought I should be aware of it,'' Burke said.
She did not know who else saw the letter and would not say who had signed it. George, through his spokeswoman Mary McDonough, declined to say how he obtained the letter.
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On the Net:
Crisis: http://www.crisismagazine.com/
