Donald Walter Trautman

Donald Walter Trautman (June 24, 1936 – February 26, 2022) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Diocese of Erie in Western Pennsylvania from 1990 to 2011. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo in New York from 1985 to 1990.

Biography

Early life Donald Trautman was born in Buffalo, New York, and attended Niagara University in Lewiston, New York. He studied theology under Karl Rahner at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, where he obtained his Licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1962.

Priesthood Trautman was ordained to the priesthood in Innsbruck on April 7, 1962, for the Diocese of Buffalo. On his return to New York, he was assigned as a parish administrator in Collins, New York, then associate pastor at a parish in Buffalo.

Trautman studied biblical language for one year at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., continuing his post-graduate work in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, earning his Licentiate in Scripture in 1965. During his studies in Rome, Trautman served as a peritus, or theological expert, at the Second Vatican Council. In 1966, he earned his Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).

Trautman was critical of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and indicated that those priests who celebrate such a Mass would first need to show that they have the requisite knowledge of its rubrics and of Latin.

Retirement In June 2011, Trautman turned 75, at which point canon law requests that a bishop tender his resignation to the Pope. Trautman's successor, Monsignor Lawrence T. Persico, was appointed on July 31, 2012, at which point the Pope accepted Trautman's resignation.

Handling of sex abuse cases On August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro published a grand jury report concerning sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Erie. In the report, Trautman was criticized alongside former Bishop Murphy for allowing "predator priest" Chester Gawronski to remain in the Diocese despite numerous allegations of sexual abuse. Trautman afterwards released a statement criticizing Shapiro's portrayal of him in the report and noted that he had established guidelines in 1993 concerning how to deal with sexual abuse and later established the Diocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth in 2003 to protect children from sex abuse. Nevertheless, it was acknowledged that both Murphy and Trautman reassigned Gawronski multiple times between 1987 and 2002 and that Trautman renewed Gawronski's five-year term as a chaplain in St Mary's Home in Erie in 2001. A male accuser had previously disclosed his allegations of sexual abuse against Presley to the Erie Diocese in 1982, 1987, and 2002. Bottlinger, who claims that Freeman started abusing him in 1984 later stated that Trautman told him "You should have never put yourself in that position" when he met with Trautman to report the abuse. Two other men accused Freeman of molesting them when they were boys and complaints against Freeman surfaced as early as 1981.