EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Edward J. Slattery, a retired Catholic bishop who apologized for reinstating a priest who later admitted to sexually abusing an Oklahoma boy, has died, the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said Saturday. He was 84.
Slattery died at his home in the Tulsa area late Friday following “a series of debilitating strokes,” Vicar General Fr. Gary Kastl said in a statement from the diocese.
In 2002, amid a Catholic Church sex abuse scandal involving clergy, Slattery apologized for reinstating the Rev. Kenneth Lewis in 1995 following allegations against him. Slattery said at the time that when allegations emerged in 1994, Lewis was initially removed from the ministry but was reinstated after receiving psychiatric treatment.
“I have made mistakes along the way, and I feel terrible about it, but I do not feel guilty about it,” Slattery told the Tulsa World. “The mistakes are probably part of a culture of trying to protect the church.”
Lewis was later accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old Oklahoma boy during a 2001 trip to Illinois. Lewis was removed from the ministry and resigned in 2007. He eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sex abuse.
In 2009, the Tulsa Diocese was found out of compliance with standards set by U.S. Catholic bishops following the clergy sexual abuse scandal, but by 2010 had implemented training and other abuse prevention programs.
Slattery was also among the bishops who objected to the University of Notre Dame's invitation to then-President Barack Obama to speak at its 2009 graduation ceremony and to present him with an honorary doctorate.
Slattery was born in Chicago and was ordained a priest in 1966. He was ordained as bishop in 1994 and shortly afterward installed as bishop of the diocese in Tulsa.
He oversaw an expansion of Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma and creation of a new campus for the charity in north Tulsa as well as creation of a tuition assistance fund for Catholic families.
He resigned in 2016 after reaching his 75th birthday, as required under church law.
Slattery is survived by four sisters and one brother.
FILE - Edward Slattery, bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, celebrates Mass in a courtyard for about 30 people Monday, Sept. 5, 2005, at Camp Gruber, in Braggs, Okla. (Jim Beckel/The Oklahoman via AP)
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian man was rescued in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk after surviving for more than two months in a tiny inflatable boat that lost its engine, but his brother and nephew have died, officials said Tuesday.
The prosecutor's office in the far east of Russia said that the man was rescued Monday by a fishing vessel off the Kamchatka Peninsula.
It didn't name the survivor, but Russian news reports identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who in early August set on a journey to watch whales in the Sea of Okhotsk together with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew. Their bodies were reportedly found in the boat when the Angel fishing vessel rescued Pichugin.
Media reports said the three men traveled to the Shantar Islands off the northwestern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk in early August. They went missing after setting off for Sakhalin Island from Cape Perovsky in the Khabarovsk region on Aug. 9. A rescue effort was launched but failed to locate them.
Russian media reported that the trio had a small food ration and about 20 liters (5.2 gallons) of water when their engine failed and they found themselves adrift.
Pichugin weighed about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) when he was found, having lost half of his body weight, news reports said.
When the crew of the fishing vessel spotted the tiny inflatable boat on their radar, they initially thought it was a buoy or a piece of junk, news reports said, but they turned on the spotlight to make sure and were shocked to see Pichugin.
He didn't immediately say how he managed to survive in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in East Asia and known for its gales, and how his brother and nephew died. The crew of the ship that rescued Pichugin found their bodies tied to the boat to prevent them from being washed away by the sea, news reports said.
When Pichugin was rescued, his boat was drifting about 11 nautical miles off Kamchatka's shore, about 1,000 kilometers (about 540 nautical miles) from their departure point on the other side of the Sea of Okhotsk.
A video released by the prosecutor's office showed an emaciated man in a life jacket desperately shouting “come here!” and the crew working to pull him back to safety.
“I have no strength left,” Pichugin said as he was taken to safety.
Prosecutors said that they launched an investigation into the incident on charges of violation of safety rules that resulted in deaths.
Pichugin was rushed to an emergency care unit at the Magadan hospital. Chief doctor Yuri Lednev told reporters that he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia but was in stable condition.
In this photo taken from video released by the official telegram channel of the Russian Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, a Russian man who spent more than two months adrift in an inflatable boat is seen before being rescued by a fishing vessel in the Okhotsk Sea near the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in Kamchatka region of Russian far east. (Official telegram channel of the Russian Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the official telegram channel of the Russian Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, a Russian man who spent more than two months adrift in an inflatable boat is seen before being rescued by a fishing vessel in the Okhotsk Sea near the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in Kamchatka region of Russian far east. (Official telegram channel of the Russian Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor's Office via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian emergency workers transfer Mikhail Pichugin into an ambulance ashore after he was rescued by a fishing vessel following 67 days adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk near the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in Kamchatka region of Russian far east. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian emergency workers pull Mikhail Pichugin ashore after he was rescued by a fishing vessel following 67 days adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk near the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in Kamchatka region of Russian far east. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
