Catholic university removes bishop's name from library

Published: 2007-08-08

DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNS) -- St. Ambrose University honored the request of a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and removed the name of the late Bishop Gerald F. O'Keefe of Davenport from the university's 11-year-old library. The Catholic university's board of directors made the decision Aug. 3 in hopes of bringing about healing, said Davenport Bishop Martin J. Amos, the board's president. Shortly after the board announced its decision, two workers in a crane removed the letters spelling out "O'KEEFE" from the front of the building. The word "LIBRARY" remained. The Rev. Mark Powell of Indianapolis, the survivor, requested the change because he said Bishop O'Keefe failed to take the necessary precautions to protect children from abuse during his 26-year tenure as head of the diocese. In his own case, he was abused after he came to the Davenport Diocese in the late '70s as a teenager to join an order of religious brothers, and reported it to the bishop, who did nothing, he said. Bishop O'Keefe served the Davenport Diocese from 1967 to 1993 and died in 2000.

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