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Even as Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera apologized to his flock last month for the &#8220;misguided and inappropriate decisions of church leaders,&#8221; he is reckoning with his own role &#8212; revealed in federal court a decade ago &#8212; in the system that protected pedophile priests.Bambera handled three sexual misconduct cases during his three-year tenure as diocesan vicar for clergy. He testified about one of them in a 2007 civil trial over clergy abuse.Under questioning from a plaintiff&#8217;s lawyer, Bambera acknowledged the diocese ignored its own policy by failing to report &#8220;Father Ned&#8221; &#8212; a pseudonym used in court &#8212; to civil authorities. He testified that Father Ned was removed from ministry only temporarily before getting another parish assignment. Once there, Bambera told the jury, Father Ned was caught &#8220;grooming&#8221; a boy for sexual assault.The Associated Press has learned that Father Ned&#8217;s real name is the Rev. Robert Gibson, who died in 2012. Gibson is one of about 300 predator priests named in <a href="http://media-downloads.pacourts.us/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf?cb=112148" target="_blank">a landmark Pennsylvania grand jury report that said more than 1,000 children in six Catholic dioceses have been abused since the </a><a href="http://media-downloads.pacourts.us/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf?cb=112148" target="_blank">1940s</a>.According to the report (see list of assignments below), Gibson spent much of his career in the Poconos, but did spend some time in Luzerne County. He was briefly pastor of St. John Bosco in Conyngham in the early 1980s, and lived at St. Ignatius Rectory, Kingston, before being removed from ministry in 1998.Bambera&#8217;s participation in the Gibson case highlights the fact that some of today&#8217;s bishops, while they were rising through the ranks, helped their superiors shield priests accused of abuse from law enforcement and allowed them to continue in ministry &#8212; or at least had knowledge of the cover-up by senior church officials and didn&#8217;t blow the whistle.&#8216;Part of the system&#8217;&#8220;He knew. He was part of the system,&#8221; said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania legal expert on child sexual abuse and the founder of CHILD USA, an advocacy group.Bambera, who has emphasized his zero-tolerance policies toward clergy abuse since becoming Scranton&#8217;s bishop in 2010, said Bishop James Timlin had already decided to reassign Gibson to another parish by the time Bambera became vicar in 1995. He said he worked to make sure Gibson and other priests accused of abuse were eventually barred from ministry.&#8220;Could I have done things better? Do I wish that there were things that were different in those days? Yeah, I do, I do,&#8221; Bambera told the AP. &#8220;I wish that law enforcement was engaged on a much much more regular basis than it had been.&#8221; But he said there was only so much he could do: &#8220;I worked for Bishop Timlin and the decisions were his to make, they weren&#8217;t mine.&#8221;On Friday, Bambera barred Timlin from representing the diocese in public, citing his failure to protect children from abusive priests. Bambera said in a statement announcing Timlin&#8217;s punishment that the grand jury report had also &#8220;caused me to reflect on my own role in handling allegations of abuse in the church&#8221; and &#8220;to consider my role and past actions in protecting children.&#8221;Bambera isn&#8217;t the only current Pennsylvania bishop whose handling of old abuse cases has come under scrutiny. Like Bambera, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik and Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert were, at one time, high-ranking church officials tasked with investigating reports of sexual misconduct.The grand jury said Zubik, on behalf of Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl, wrote a 1991 letter giving permission to a known child molester to transfer to a parish in the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas. Wuerl, now a cardinal and the archbishop of Washington, D.C., has himself come under fierce criticism over his tenure in Pittsburgh. In Allentown, the grand jury said Schlert was involved in the diocese&#8217;s 2002 effort to discredit a victim of priestly abuse. The bishop has flatly denied it.Gibson caseIn the Scranton case, the grand jury said the diocese was first contacted about Gibson &#8212; Father Ned &#8212; by an attorney for a man who claimed the priest had sexually abused him 20 years earlier. Gibson admitted to it, resigned as pastor and was sent to Saint John Vianney Center outside Philadelphia for treatment.Before major church reforms in 2002, bishops often sent abusive priests to treatment and allowed them to return to ministry. Thus, eight months after his resignation and one month after Bambera became vicar for clergy, Gibson left treatment and went to live at St. Ignatius Rectory.Gibson was reinstated &#8220;to a limited ministry as a parish priest&#8221; based on the recommendation of mental health professionals at St. John Vianney Center, diocesan spokesman Bill Genello said via email.Bambera, as a top adviser to Timlin, participated in closed-door discussions about Gibson, according to his 2007 testimony. But he told jurors the final decision on what to do with the priest rested with Timlin. The grand jury extensively documented Timlin&#8217;s role in concealing clergy sex abuse, but mentioned Bambera only a few times.&#8220;To be fair to Bambera, he was not the ultimate decision maker here,&#8221; said Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean of Duquesne University School of Law.&#8216;Pathway of pedophiles&#8217;Hamilton said Bambera&#8217;s subordinate role is no excuse. She has called on Pennsylvania prosecutors to file child endangerment charges against bishops who concealed abuse as well as subordinates who took part. Hamilton noted the case of Philadelphia Monsignor William Lynn, the first Catholic Church official convicted over his handling of sexual-abuse complaints.Lynn &#8212; who, as vicar for clergy, held the same position Bambera did in Scranton &#8212; served 33 months of a three-to-six-year prison term before a state appeals court granted him a new trial, which is pending.&#8220;They all did the same thing,&#8221; Hamilton said. &#8220;And what they did was put children in the pathway of pedophiles.&#8221;Bambera told the AP that while he didn&#8217;t do the job perfectly, he did what he could to remove abusive priests, and &#8220;I clearly did raise my voice and my concern on many occasions about behavior and decisions that I didn&#8217;t agree with.&#8221;THE GIBSON FILEAccording to the Grand Jury report, the allegations against Gibson were as follows:&#8226; On Jan. 5, 1995, the Diocese of Scranton was contacted by an attorney representing a man who claimed to have been sexually abused by Father Robert J. Gibson in 1975 when the victim was 14 years old. Gibson admitted to the sexual misconduct. A civil action was filed against the Diocese and a $30,000 settlement was reached.On Jan. 9, 1995, Gibson resigned as pastor of St. Bernadette. He was admitted to St. John Vianney Hospital in Downingtown for evaluation and treatment.In August 1995, Gibson was discharged with a recommendation that he reside at a parish under supervision and continue to receive therapy. He was placed in residence at St. Ignatius Rectory.&#8226; In the spring of 1997, a complaint was received from a mother who accused Gibson of &#8220;grooming behavior&#8221; involving her son. Gibson was re -admitted to St. John Vianney Hospital for further assessment.On Sept. 16, 1997, the decision was made that Gibson could no longer exercise priestly ministry or reside in a Diocesan facility. He remained under supervision until he was able to be placed in a residential treatment facility.&#8226; On February 1, 1998, Gibson was placed in the St. John Vianney Renewal Center in Dittmer, Missouri. The facility monitors priests so as to prevent any behavior that would be harmful to the faithful.Bishop James C. Timlin removed Gibson&#8217; s priestly faculties and directed him to refrain from wearing clerical attire outside of the Renewal Center. Gibson refused to seek voluntary laicization.&#8226; On February 26, 1998, the Diocese received information that Gibson was involved in sexual misconduct with his nephew, who was a minor at the time.&#8226; On April 5, 2002, the Diocese received a letter from an adult male who accused Gibson of sexual misconduct and providing pornographic material to him when he was a minor. A copy of the letter was shared with law enforcement.&#8226; On October 5, 2005, the Diocese was contacted by an adult male who reported that Gibson sexually assaulted him when he was a minor. The victim sought financial compensation. Gibson admitted to the allegations and arranged to pay the victim $700 a month until his own death.&#8226; On July 16, 2007, an adult male reported to the Diocese that he was sexually abused by Gibson frrom 1973 through 1974. The Monroe County District Attorney&#8217;s Office was notified of the allegations. The Diocese offered to arrange for counseling for the victim and to arrangefor the victim to meet with the Bishop. The victim declined. Gibson was questioned about the allegations but had no memory of the allegations.Gibson was diagnosed with dementia. He died in 2012.GIBSON&#8217;S ASSIGNMENTS6/1958 - 10/1958: Camp St. Andrew, Tunkhannock10/1958 - 9/1965: Asst. Pastor, St. Paul, Scranton9/1965 - 9/1968: Asst. Pastor, St. Matthew, Stroudsburg9/1968 - 1/1974: Asst. Pastor, St. Luke, Stroudsburg1/1974 - 9/1982: Administrator, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Broadheadsville9/1982 - 1/1983: Pastor, St. John Bosco, Conyngham1/1983 - 1/1995: Pastor, St. Bernadette, Canadensis1995: Resigns as Pastor, St. Bernadette1/1995 - 8/1995: Leave of Absence8/1995 - 1997: Residence, St. Ignatius Rectory, Kingston2/01/1998: Faculties removedSource: Grand Jury report<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bishop Joseph Bambera talks to a reporter about the grand jury report on the child sex scandal in the Diocese of Scranton at his office in the Chancery Building last month.	 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL082218BishopBambera_2-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bishop Joseph Bambera talks to a reporter about the grand jury report on the child sex scandal in the Diocese of Scranton at his office in the Chancery Building last month.	 </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Michael RubinkamAssociated Press</bylineMeta></div>

As Bambera looked on, abusive ‘Father Ned’ got new assignment