Washington Post (01/31/00) P. A4 
              From news services

              High AIDS Toll Among Priests Has Been Obscured, Paper
              Says

              KANSAS CITY, Mo.--AIDS has killed hundreds of Roman
              Catholic priests in the United States although other
              causes may be listed on their death certificates, the
              Kansas City Star reported yesterday.

              The newspaper reported that its examination of death
              certificates and interviews with experts indicated several
              hundred priests had died of AIDS-related illnesses since
              the mid-1980s and hundreds have the AIDS virus. The
              death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that
              of the general population, the newspaper said.

              Bishop Raymond J. Boland of the Diocese of Kansas
              City-St. Joseph said the deaths show that priests are
              human: "Much as we would regret it, it shows that human
              nature is human nature."

              Six of 10 priests responding on confidential questionnaires
              from the newspaper said they knew of at least one priest
              who had died of an AIDS-related illness and one-third knew
              a priest living with AIDS.

              The paper cited the case of Bishop Emerson J. Moore, who
              left the Archdiocese of New York in 1995 and went to
              Minnesota, where he died in a hospice of an AIDS-related
              illness. His death certificate attributed the death to
              "unknown natural causes" and listed his occupation as
              "laborer."

              After an AIDS activist filed a complaint, officials changed
              the cause of death to "HIV-related illness," the paper
              reported, but the occupation was not corrected.