Waiting for word from Erie

Kavanagh is to be tried before an ecclesiastical court after the Vatican recently gave the go-ahead for the rare hearing before a panel of canon law experts.
The hearing is expected to take place in Erie, Pa.
The venue was reportedly chosen in order to tone down the kind of media attention that the hearing would receive if it were held in New York.
A date has yet to be announced for the hearing that will take place behind closed doors and will not be open to the press.
Joe Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said this week that the decision as to when exactly to hold the hearing was now a matter for the diocese of Erie.
A call to the diocese had not been returned by presstime.
As the case rumbles on, Msgr. Kavanagh has been on extended administrative leave from his position in the archdiocese, where for years he served as vicar of development, a job that is primarily focused on raising funds and organizing major events, including the annual Al Smith charitable dinner.
It was Msgr. Kavanagh who led the organizing for the funeral of the late Cardinal John O’Connor in 2000.
His work, however, came to a jarring halt in 2002 when an accusation was made by a former student that Kavanagh had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with him more than 20 years ago.
That accusation has not prompted either civil or criminal action and rests solely with church authorities.
Since the accusation surfaced, Kavanagh, 68, has continued to work in community-based projects, most especially in the Bronx. But he has not been active in the workings of the archdiocese.
The uncertainty surrounding Kavanagh’s position at one point prompted a number of priests in the archdiocese to write a letter to Cardinal Edward Egan expressing frustration over delays on the part of the church in dealing with cases where priests are accused of inappropriate behavior.
The letter carried the typed names of about sixty priests, but was not signed by any of the named clerics, according to Zwilling.
Zwilling said that the letter did not deal specifically with the Kavanagh case, but had sought general information as to how the archdiocese was handling cases where allegations were leveled against priests.
Msgr. Kavanagh’s name was not among the sixty typed names, Zwilling told the Echo.
Kavanagh’s accuser, Daniel Donohue, has charged that Kavanagh engaged in an intense, six-year relationship with him with “romantic and sexual overtones.”
The alleged relationship took place when Donahue — now in his early 40s and a father of four living on the West Coast — was a student at Cathedral Preparatory School in Manhattan, a high school where young men considering the priesthood are educated.
Msgr. Kavanagh was principal of the school at the time.
Kavanagh was reportedly told in 2003 that an archdiocesan review board composed of laypeople had determined that he was guilty of the charge of having an inappropriate relationship and that he had been asked to resign by Cardinal Egan.
Kavanagh reportedly refused to resign and the matter was subsequently passed to the Vatican.
As the delay in calling a hearing lengthened, the archdiocese justified the lack of action on the need to ensure that proper procedure was followed, that the rights of all concerned were respected and that nothing would occur in the case that was in haste or inappropriate.
As he waited for his hearing, Kavanagh submitted himself to two polygraph tests. He passed both.
Kavanagh told the Echo that he was now simply waiting for a date for his hearing.
His canon lawyer, Philadelphia-based Patricia Dougan, was traveling outside the U.S. this week, he said.