By Gretchen Keiser

A commission chaired by Coca-Cola president Donald R. Keough will investigate whether archdiocesan funds or funds from two parishes were paid to Victoria Long, in the wake of a scandal involving Ms. Long, Archbishop Eugene A Marino, SSJ, and Father Michael Woods.

The commission's task will be to "investigate whether there have been any monies paid to or on behalf of Victoria R. Long from the central offices of the archdiocese of Atlanta, from St. Jude's parish, or from St. John the Evangelist parish," said Michael McNamara, chief financial officer of the archdiocese, August 14.

Three other commission members will be Ronald Seder, a retired IBM director living in Gainesville, Alan Pinado, a Clark-Atlanta University business school professor, and Michael Tripp, a certified public accountant and managing partner of Ernst & Young.

The information was released by Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese. In an interview August 11, Bishop Lyke said that the commission would not carry out the actual audit of archdiocesan and parish financial records. An outside auditing firm will be hired to do that work, Bishop Lyke said, but the commission will take part in the selection of the firm and will continue to be aware of the facts as they unfold.

Bishop Lyke also said that the results of the investigation will be made public. He said that the commission and the outside audit were his response to the fact that questions had come to him from outside the Church, through the news media, and from inside the Church, through his meetings with lay people, priests and Religious, about alleged misuse of archdiocesan or parish funds for Ms. Long.

"I have been told by our finance officer that no archdiocesan funds have been used to support Vicki Long," Bishop Lyke said Aug. 11. However, he said, "I recognize that a number of people had this question. This question came up at every meeting I had ... I felt the only way to put to rest that perception was to establish a special commission to look into the matter. I now realize that it is a bigger job and we will need to get an outside audit."

"The results of their study will be published," Bishop Lyke said.

Keough is the president and chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola C. Pinado has been director of the Real Estate Institute at Clark-Atlanta University/Morehouse College for four years. Prior to that he was vice-president of the New York Life Insurance Co. in New York City. Seder was a director of IBM when he retired in February, 1987. All four commission members are Catholic.

The parish accounts of St. Jude's in Sandy Springs and St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville are to be included since both parishes have been pastored by Father Woods, who acknowledged Aug. 4 that he had been involved in the past with Ms. Long in an illicit relationship.

He resigned as pastor of St. Jude's although his resignation has not been accepted by Bishop Lyke.

"I want time to go by and allow for things to settle and I want an opportunity to be able to consult a representative group of people in the parish to get their input and then I have to talk to him (Father Woods)," Bishop Lyke said August 11.

In the meantime, the parish is being temporarily administered by Father David Talley, a parochial vicar at St. Jude's, a parish of nearly 2,000 families. Father Austin Fogarty, who is also a parochial vicar at St. Jude's was out of the country on vacation and is due back Sept. 1. Father Woods has been in seclusion since August 4 and declined through a third party to be interviewed. He referred inquires to his prepared statement.

A storm of publicity and allegations was unleashed Aug. 1 when WAGA-TV, Channel 5, broke a story that Archbishop Marino resigned from his post as archbishop of Atlanta after being confronted by Catholic Church authorities with information that he had an "intimate relationship" with Ms. Long, 27, of Riverdale.

Following nearly two weeks of public allegations and disclosures, the following information has been verified with officials of the archdiocese or public records.

In mid-April, 1990, Catholic Church authorities were told by an unidentified individual of the existence of the relationship and an investigation was begun. Archbishop Marino agreed to seek appropriate spiritual, medical and psychological therapy and to refrain from the exercise of his office until a final decision was reached. On May 3, Father Edward Dillon, vicar general of the archdiocese, was informed and Archbishop Marino relinquished administration of the archdiocese. The archbishop, who was sequestered in the New York area from May 3 on, submitted his resignation as archbishop of Atlanta to Pope John Paul II June 1. The resignation was accepted July 2 and was effective July 10, when it was made public and when the appointment of Bishop Lyke as apostolic administrator was also announced.

On Aug. 10 the archbishop was admitted under observation to the psychiatric wing of an unidentified general hospital.

The only details of the relationship that have been given indirectly through Archbishop Marino were provided in a statement to the people of the archdiocese by Bishop Lyke. The bishop said Archbishop Marino's "personal reasons (for his resignation) involved an intimate relationship with a woman that was entered into shortly after his arrival in Atlanta in May 1988 and sustained during the next two years."

The woman was identified through the news media as Ms. Long, who had previously alleged through a lawsuit against the diocese of Savannah, GA, that she had had a relationship with Father Donal Keohane. Her allegation that Father Keohane fathered her daughter, LaDonna, 4, was disproved by blood tests ordered by the court. Father Keohane had provided her with monthly child support of $350, according to court records, always with a disclaimer that he did not admit to being the child's father.

The only other information provided by Bishop Lyke about the relationship between Archbishop Marino and Ms. Long "is that the relationship has ended."

In his statement to St. Jude's parish, Father Woods also said that his "illicit relationship has stopped."

The public disclosures about the archbishop and Father woods were stunning announcements to people who had heard only three weeks earlier that Archbishop Marino's health and stress-related physical and psychological difficulties had forced him to resign.

In meetings with staff, and with priests, Religious and deacons in the archdiocese and the press, Bishop Lyke said that the health dimensions of the archbishop's resignation were valid, although not the full story. "The important thing to remember is that the archbishop is ill and that all does not evolve around the current situation. He has health problems, medical, physical, psychological," the bishop said during the Aug. 2 press conference.

Bishop Lyke said he met with Archbishop Marino on another matter at the end of April. At that time the archbishop told him he was experiencing great stress, was overworked and that the apostolic nuncio had given him permission for a two-month leave, Bishop Lyke said.

The archbishop, who was 56 in May, has been a priest for 28 years and a bishop for 16 years.

Bishop Lyke met privately with priests of the archdiocese Aug. 2. Father Richard Brennan, parochial vicar of ST. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw, said the mood among the priests was one of despondency. "Everyone found it hard to believe such a tragedy could happen." There was anger expressed, he said, and "maybe, because of the anger, there was hope."

Sister Margaret McAnoy, IHM, president of the Atlanta Conference of Sisters, shared her thoughts on Archbishop Marino at the Cursillo team formation meeting Aug. 3 as director of the Cursillo.

"I got the sense of great concern for him," Sister McAnoy said. "There was a sense of profound loss."

"The Gospel calls us to be a forgiving people," she said. "Now, more than ever, we need to nourish forgiveness of both the woman and Archbishop Marino."

Sister Barbara Harrington, GNSH, coordinator of Hispanic Service at St. Joseph's Hospital, said, "We've seen other church groups suffering from sensational and scandalous headlines. This challenges us as a church community to handle it in a way that calls forth forgiveness and compassion and to go forward with this reality as part of the history of our church life."

Deacon Richard Narey, head of the permanent diaconate in the archdiocese, said some 70 deacons came to the private meeting with Bishop Lyke and appreciated his meeting with them. The deacons, he said, "are pulling for the archbishop to come out of it. They also know they have to move on as a church."

Bishop Lyke told the deacons he had been impressed by the compassion and forgiveness shown by people and the spirituality of lay people in the diocese. "This says a lot about our faith," Deacon Narey said. "It says we're keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ. That's where we need to focus."

Father Talley said parishioners at St. Jude's were reacting to Father Woods' announcement "unbelievably well."

The priest has received "hundreds of letters," Father Talley said, most expressing forgiveness to him. "A few are really scandalized and can't get beyond that."

Father Woods helped Vicki Long "in a pastoral way" as a single mother with a child, Father Talley said, but "a line was crossed by he and she both."

"He has been criticized in the past about this relationship. He did not tell the truth. This hurt," Father Talley said.

"He is still terribly sad and broken, but he's doing better," the parochial vicar said.

Father Woods' acknowledgement was made to Bishop Lyke Aug. 4, the bishop said, after a reporter had made the allegation public. On Aug. 3, Father Woods denied that there had been more than a pastoral relationship between he and Ms. Long, the bishop said, but the priest contacted the bishop the next day and said that he had not been truthful.

Although Ms. Long, through her attorney, publicly denied a sexual relationship had ever existed with Father Woods, the archdiocese said that Father Woods had explicitly acknowledged that it had occurred.

Ms. Long is a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist and had been serving as a Eucharistic minister there. She has been removed as a Eucharistic minister since the disclosures, according to the pastor, Father Ray Horan.

Father Horan spoke admiringly of the parish response in Hapeville. "It's amazing. It's incredible," he said. "They went from shock to the anger, into the incredible movement toward reconciliation and forgiveness. They have themselves centered on the person of Jesus ... I'm really impressed with the parish."

A native of Columbus, GA, Ms. Long graduated from high school there and attended four years of college at Columbus College, but has not received a degree, according to information filed with court records in Atlanta.

She became a singing career in high school and is said have recorded records. About a year after her daughter was born in 1986, she filed a lawsuit against Father Keohane and the diocese of Savannah claiming that LaDonna was Father Keohane's child and alleging that she had entered into an agreement with him for child support payments of $350 a month. The agreement included a disclaimer that he did not admit to being the child's father.

The lawsuit, filed in August 1987, attempts to set aside the settlement agreement on the grounds that she was suffering from postpartum depression and that it was signed under duress.

She was attempting to obtain a larger sum of money monthly from Father Keohane.

In sworn testimony on Oct. 23, 1989, she said under oath that she had never had a sexual relationship with any other man except Father Keohane, according to David Brown, attorney for the archdiocese of Atlanta. That statement "has subsequently proven to be false," he said.

Although a court-ordered test to determine paternity showed that Father Keohane was not the father of the child, she continues to press the lawsuit against him and the diocese of Savannah, Brown said.

The archdiocese of Atlanta has been told that she intends to pursue legal action against the archdiocese and Archbishop Marino.

This claim, if pursued, will be opposed actively by the archdiocese, Brown said.

"Our conclusion is she does not have a legal basis for a claim against the archdiocese and that her claim of a marriage to the archbishop is ludicrous."

"Father Peter Dora has reported that not one penny will be paid by the archdiocese on that claim," he added.

The only payment that has gone to Ms. Long, he and the bishop confirmed, is $14,000 that has been paid directly to either medical personnel or a medical facility on her behalf.

A limit of $15,000 has been set by the archdiocese on the amount of medical expenses to be paid. Brown pointed out that the payments were made out of charitable considerations and that a written agreement with Ms. Long's attorney said they would not be used against the archdiocese should a claim be made against the archdiocese in the future.

To date, no formal claim has been made against the archdiocese, Brown said.

(Rita McInerney and Paula Day contributed to this report.)