Chaplain’s Work With Abusers Was Little-Known

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Since Coughlin came to the House, the Chicago Archdiocese has declared that the procedures in place in the 1990s for managing sexual abuse allegations were inadequate. The archdiocese has settled lawsuits with dozens of alleged victims, paying out millions of dollars in damages and publicly naming for the first time several priests who had been under Coughlin’s care or supervision at various times in the 1990s.

House Members, meanwhile, have never heard about Coughlin’s work with pedophile priests in part because he was never asked about it during the vetting process used by Hastert to choose a new Chaplain, according to several sources familiar with the process.

In late 1999, Hastert convened a bipartisan committee of House Members to recommend candidates to replace the retiring Chaplain, and the committee recommended three clergymen — a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian and a Catholic. Hastert nominated the Presbyterian and was suddenly engulfed in a firestorm of partisan protest that he and the Republican House leadership were anti-Catholic.

By March 2000, Hastert — unable to quell the criticism and unable to get a House vote on his nominee for the chaplaincy — asked Cardinal George for advice. George apparently provided five new candidates; Coughlin and one other were interviewed by the Speaker’s staff.

According to Coughlin, Hastert’s staffers never delved into the details of his work in the archdiocese.

“They said, ‘Vicar for priests, now what does that mean?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m the cardinal’s representative to the priests and trying to pastor [as part of] the bishop’s care for his priests. ... And I have to really say, most of the work is very confidential.’”

What Coughlin remembered about the interview was “that’s the word they liked the most. Confidential.”

A staff member who worked for Hastert at the time said the Speaker was primarily concerned with finding a Chaplain who could serve as a pastor to Members and also serve as a healer for the House to repair the relationships that had been frayed by the bitterness of the debate over the chaplaincy.

Confidentiality was a critical quality for anyone who would be discussing sensitive private matters with Members, this source said. Furthermore, one of the Chaplain candidates had suggested he might want to write a book about his experiences in the job, which had set off alarm bells in the Speaker’s office.

This source said the search committee knew about Coughlin’s prior positions but had not delved into the details of his work with priests, in part because he had a sterling recommendation from the cardinal.

The original search committee that Hastert created had disbanded and did not vet Coughlin. Democrats accepted his appointment, but their hard feelings about the process remained evident. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) took to the floor and wished Coughlin well, but said, “He is an individual we have not met.”

The priest sex abuse scandal did not become a major national story until a year or two later, when a wave of allegations emerged. In 2002, church officials met in Dallas to create new, stricter polices toward priests accused of sexual misconduct, and the Chicago Archdiocese dismissed several priests, including some whom Coughlin had cared for.