ALPENA — The Catholic Diocese of Gaylord in the past allowed priests to continue serving the church for years after the priests were accused of sexually abusing people — including once working to hire an accused priest from Detroit to lead an Alpena church — but has in recent years responded more quickly to allegations, according to a News analysis of a new report from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office released on Monday.

The 130-page report details the diocese’s response to allegations dating as far back as 1950 against 28 priests and deacons, including allegations against four priests accused of abusing at least seven people in Northeast Michigan.

Most of the allegations — including all of the allegations of abuse that happened in Northeast Michigan — already were publicly known, with many of the accused priests listed on the diocese’s website since 2018.

Most of the abuse detailed in the report dates back decades.

The Attorney General’s Office announced no new criminal charges, saying either the statute of limitations had expired, the accused had died, or the accusers did not wish to pursue charges.

The report includes allegations against three active church leaders, none of them in Northeast Michigan. All of those allegations involve alleged survivors who are adults, and the diocese is in discussions about how to handle those allegations, Bishop Jeffrey Walsh said during a press conference recorded and posted to the diocese website.

“Today, there is no priest or deacon in active, public ministry in the Diocese of Gaylord who has a substantiated allegation of abuse or misconduct against a minor,” Walsh said.

See the entire report from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office on allegations of abuse by priests and deacons in the Diocese of Gaylord. Story continues below document.

Gaylord Diocese Report Final by JustinHinkley on Scribd

The report shows a church in the past often hesitant to oust accused priests, including in Northeast Michigan.

Take, for example, the case of Ronald Gronowski, accused in 1994 of abusing at least two teen boys in the early 1970s in Alpena. Two years after the church learned of the accusations, the diocese transferred Gronowski to an administrative role in Rogers City. In 1995, the diocese settled with one of the alleged survivors of Gronowski’s abuse, paying the man $50,000 in exchange for the man’s agreement not to sue and not to disclose the agreement or the facts of the case.

It wasn’t until 2002, following an angry letter from one of the survivors of Gronowski’s alleged abuse, that Gronowski resigned and then the diocese officially removed him from the church.

In 2001, then led by a different bishop, the Diocese of Gaylord pushed the archdiocese in Detroit to allow the Gaylord diocese to hire priest Gerald Shirilla to lead St. Mary Parish in Alpena, though the diocese knew Shirilla had been accused of abuse in 1993 and forced out of the Detroit church. Shirilla served for seven months in Alpena until the archdiocese revoked his priesthood in 2002 following stories in the Detroit newspapers detailing the allegations against him and a letter from five men who said Shirilla had abused them when they were teens.

More recently, the church has acted more swiftly.

Priest Raymond Pilarski was first accused in 1986. He wasn’t suspended until 2002, and then Rome ordered him reinstated the next year, over the local bishop’s objections, according to the report.

However, when fresh allegations surfaced in 2005, including an adult woman who accused Pilarski of abusing her in the mid-1970s in Alpena, the church suspended Pilarski the same year and permanently removed him the following year.

In 2002, following explosive news reports of abuse by priests covered up by the church — including reports by the Boston Globe, as highlighted in the 2015 film “Spotlight” — the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the Dallas Charter, laying out a series of reforms designed to protect children.

In his press conference, Walsh said reforms include new curriculum for seminarians, new protocols to prevent priests or other church staffers from being alone with minors or vulnerable adults, new requirements for church employees to complete safe environment training, training for Catholic schoolchildren on proper boundaries, criminal background checks for church employees, protocols for church employees to promptly report allegations of abuse to law enforcement, and the hiring of victim assistance coordinators who help survivors of abuse.

Check out the video below of Jeffrey Walsh, bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord, giving a statement and answering questions about the Michigan Attorney General’s Office’s report on allegations of abuse by priests and deacons in the diocese. Viewing on mobile? Turn your device horizontally for the best viewing experience.

“We are not a perfect church, but we are committed to learning from our past,” Walsh said. “Know that we will do everything to get this to zero. One instance of abuse is too many.”

The Attorney General’s Office launched its investigation into the Catholic church in 2018, executing search warrants at all six dioceses in Michigan and the archdiocese in Detroit, seizing some 1.5 million paper documents.

The report on the Diocese of Gaylord was the second released by the state after releasing a report on the Diocese of Marquette in October. The office plans to release separate reports on all six dioceses and the archdiocese.

All of the dioceses have cooperated with the investigation, the Attorney General’s Office said in its report.