DETROIT, June 21 — The Archdiocese of Detroit said today that it would probably remove three priests who prosecutors believe sexually abused minors in the past. An earlier investigation of the three by the archdiocese had cleared them.
An archdiocese spokesman said that new church guidelines mandating removal of any abusive priest left them with little choice. The spokesman, Ned McGrath, said "the strongest possibility" was that all three would lose their parishes.
The criminal investigation of priests began in April after diocesan officials reluctantly agreed to hand over all information regarding accusations of sexual abuse by clergymen within the last 15 years.
The Wayne County prosecutor, Michael Duggan, said that in each of the three cases, his office uncovered at least one additional victim unknown to the archdiocese.
"This is why law enforcement should be handling these cases and not the archdiocese," Mr. Duggan said. "This is what law enforcement does for a living. It's not what the archdiocese does for a living."
Only one of the priests could actually be charged because of the statute of limitations, and Mr. Duggan said he would decide whether to press charges based on the archdiocese's actions.
"I'm going to leave it to them to do what they feel is appropriate," he said. "I expect them to take appropriate action."
Mr. McGrath said the evidence leading prosecutors to believe the accusations against the three priests was recently discovered and was never in the archdiocese's hands.
Mr. Duggan's announcement was the first on the status of the nearly two-month investigation into 16 priests in Wayne County who are believed to have sexually assaulted minors. His office discovered that of the 16, 5 were still active in the church. Of those, three were found to have abused minors, one was recently removed by the archdiocese and one was cleared of wrongdoing.
Neither the archdiocese nor the prosecutor's office released the names of the priests or of the people who said they were abused.
Mr. Duggan said his office had not yet decided whether it would file charges against any of the 11 inactive priests.
A review of church files by prosecutors in the six-county archdiocese found at least 60 potentially abusive priests. Nineteen were investigated further, 16 in Wayne County and 3 in adjacent Macomb County. No charges have been filed in either county.