Defrocked Jersey priest who molested boys now teaches kids English in Dominican Republic
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — A former Roman Catholic priest who was defrocked and convicted of molesting two boys in New Jersey has found a new vocation in a new location — teaching children English at a private school in this resort town.
The former priest, Hadmels DeFrias, 47, told the NBC News reporter who tracked him down that he is no longer a threat to minors and also claimed to be a bishop in the "progressive Celtic church."
"I don't see the children with those eyes anymore," DeFrias said in an extensive interview outside the Colegio del Caribe school in Punta Cana, where he watched over dozens of young boys and girls while shielding himself from the sun with an umbrella.
“For me they are children and they need to be treated like children because that is what they are,” he said. “I don’t feel the attraction. I am not telling you that maybe someday it won’t be there, because I can’t predict the future.”
As a priest, DeFrias, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, was assigned to the St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when he was accused of fondling two brothers, both under 14, in 2001 and 2002 while the brothers were working in the church rectory, according to court records and published reports.
Charged with criminal sexual contact, DeFrias pleaded guilty in August 2004 and was sentenced to three years of probation, court records show. As part of his sentencing agreement, he was barred indefinitely from any future contact with children under 18 in the state of New Jersey.
After being contacted by NBC News, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey issued a statement disapproving of DeFrias' position working with children.
“It is deeply concerning to hear that a defendant prosecuted, convicted and sentenced here for criminal sexual contact with children has resurfaced overseas, apparently with supervisory capacity over children,” the office said. “We would urge anyone in any jurisdiction to be vigilant and immediately report allegations of such conduct to local authorities.”
NBC News has reached out to both the Dominican Republic educational officials and the school where DeFrias is employed to find out if they were aware of his criminal past. So far, neither has responded.
In the interview, DeFrias expressed regret for assaulting the brothers but insisted that his urges are under control and that he has been in therapy for a decade. He said he told school officials about his criminal past before they hired him, even though he claims he didn’t need to “inform them.”
Image: The Colegio del Caribe private school where Hadmels DeFrias teaches English to children in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.The Colegio del Caribe private school where Hadmels DeFrias teaches English to children in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.Evelyn Gruber / NBC News
“What they have to know is if I committed a crime in the country, which I haven’t,” DeFrias said, referring to the Dominican Republic. “So when I presented my criminal background here, it’s clean. So they don’t even have to be aware of what happened in the States.”
The ex-priest said that he has a teaching assistant in the classroom with him so he’s never alone with his young charges, and that the classroom has no doors.
DeFrias described himself as “a priest with the Progressive Celtic Church, an independent catholic jurisdiction within the Anglican tradition of churches.”
“I am currently working on setting up a Celtic Mission in the Dominican Republic. As Celtics we view things from a different perspective than mainline churches,” he wrote on his LinkedIn page. “We follow Pelagian and not Augustinian thought where there is not original sin, but original blessing. God wants all to be saved, thus every religion can lead to salvation.“
In other words, they ignore the Bible.
DeFrias, in his interview with NBC News, said his new church is an offshoot of the Anglican Church.
The Anglicans disagree.
“They are not part of the Anglican Church in North America, nor are they affiliated with the Global Anglican Future Conference,” said the Rev. Canon Andrew Gross, a spokesman for the Anglican Church in North America.
On its website, DeFrias’ church says it is associated with another Celtic Anglican church in Syracuse, New York. But NBC News could not locate any such church in Syracuse.
"I've never heard of the Celtic Anglican church," said Meredith Kadet Sanderson, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.
NBC News also reached out by email to the Progressive Celtic Church website, which lists a Most Reverend Metropolitan Archbishop Alban Mason Kirk as its Syracuse representative. There was no response.
Using the address on DeFrias’ church website, an NBC News reporter also tried and failed to locate a Sunday service in the Dominican Republic. A local guide said there are a number of religious groups in the area that don’t have a sanctuary and that hold services in public parks and other facilities.
On the church’s website, there are photos of children and their families participating in services as well as a photo of DeFrias dressed in a brown habit.
DeFrias said he misses being a Roman Catholic priest. “I miss it because I don’t even celebrate the Eucharist anymore,” he said. “I mean, I am a bishop in the (Celtic) church. I’m elected bishop but it’s just a role to direct other priests.”
“I don’t like speaking in terms of what I lost because I think the children lost more,” he added. “But I lost most of my life. When you are trained as a priest you were trained as a priest and nothing else.”
Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, whose efforts to expose pedophile priests were dramatized in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” said the Catholic Church has a history of washing its hands of problem clergymen and he’s not surprised the Newark Archdiocese was not keeping tabs on DeFrias.
“Just because a priest is publicly named as a pedophile doesn’t mean they keep a close eye on them afterward,” Garabedian said. “If the Catholic Church defrocks a priest, they don’t keep track of that priest, and that is a calculated move. They don’t want to know him."
Quebec Catholic dioceses tap ex-judge to investigate alleged cases of sexual abuse
Finally, a Canadian district begins to investigate paedophile priests.
It's about time!
It's about time!
CBC News
Christian Lépine, archbishop of Montreal, asked retired Superior Court justice Anne-Marie Trahan to conduct the audit to determine the number and nature of cases of alleged sexual abuse in five Catholic dioceses in Quebec. (Charles Contant/CBC)
A retired judge will examine 70 years of archives to determine the number and nature of cases of alleged sexual abuse committed against minors in five Catholic dioceses in Quebec, including Montreal.
The goal is to collect statistics on the number of allegations that involve both clergy members and staff at the Joliette, Montreal, Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Saint-Jérôme and Valleyfield dioceses, according to a news release issued by the Archdiocese of Montreal.
Archbishop Christian Lépine said Wednesday that he hopes the process will help restore trust in the church.
"It doesn't answer all the questions, but it's to take measure of the situation — how many victims, how many priests were involved," Lépine said. "Then each diocese will see how to move ahead."
Starting in September, former Superior Court justice Anne-Marie Trahan will comb through archives from the 1950s onward.
Lépine asked Trahan to conduct the audit, and was inspired by similar initiatives elsewhere in the world, according to the release.
The archdiocese says Trahan will be given all the necessary means to carry out a thorough investigation.
The Quebec Association of Victims of Priests thinks it's an empty gesture.
"This is not an independent audit, this is not an independent inquiry," spokesperson Carlo Tarini said. "This review announced today is obviously for some type of damage control," he said.
Auxiliary bishop Thomas Dowd says if the archdiocese is going to start fresh, it has to examine its past.
(Charles Contant/CBC)
In a statement today, the Archdiocese of Quebec said it will also conduct an audit of its archives. The Quebec archdiocese includes the dioceses of Chicoutimi, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and Trois-Rivières.
The statement said the details of the audit are still to be determined.
Thomas Dowd, one of the Montreal archdiocese's auxiliary bishops, was involved in the planning of the review.
He said the process is about bringing to light cases that may have been kept secret in order to ensure justice is served and to "learn from it so that frankly, we know what to do, and do better, in future cases."
"We want to be able to react accurately if any new complaints come forward, but it's also important to clean out that closet. So if we're going to start fresh, we've got to take a look at our past," he told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.
Dowd said the case of Brian Boucher, a Montreal priest sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison for sexual assault, compounded Lépine's desire to get to the truth.
The audit is expected to last between 18 and 24 months. The final report will be made public.
Montreal priest Brian Boucher pleads guilty to sexually abusing minor - Gets 8 Years
Boucher pleaded guilty to two charges: sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching. The acts took place between 1995 and 1999.
JESSE FEITH, MONTREAL GAZETTE
Montreal-area Catholic priest Brian Boucher, who was found guilty earlier this month of sexually assaulting a youth, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing another boy in the mid-1990s.
Boucher was sentenced yesterday to 8 years in prison.
In early January, Boucher was found guilty of sexually assaulting another boy, between 2008 and 2011, while serving as parish priest at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Town of Mount Royal.
The victim in Monday’s case, whose identity is covered by a publication ban, had testified in the previous trial to provide “similar fact” evidence, supporting the prosecution’s case and challenging the defence’s argument that the victim had fabricated his complaint.
The man said Boucher began abusing him when he was 10 years old. He said the abuse occurred, in some form, every time he was with the priest, which he estimated was about twice a week over a three-year period.
He said family members had asked Boucher to take him under his wing while his father was in prison, and the priest became a father figure of sorts. The man said the abuse began with Boucher touching him in his car.
“He would pick me up at LaSalle Catholic School, which was a block and a half from the church. He would drive me back to my house and he would have his hand on my thigh or on my belt buckle,” he told the court. “He would always try to grab my crotch.”
Some of the car rides ended at motels, where Boucher would shower and tell the boy to do the same. He would lecture him about inappropriate sexual behaviour, touch his genitals and request that he reciprocate. The man said Boucher would have him get naked on the bed, where the priest would lubricate himself and straddle him.
Boucher would sometimes take him to confession afterward.
“I was supposed to confess to something that was still going on, right now,” he said. “And right after confession, I knew the exact same thing would be going on again.”
Boucher had denied the allegations before entering Monday’s guilty plea and was supposed to stand trial on the charges this week. As a result of the plea, a conditional stay was placed on two other charges: sexual assault and breaking and entering.
Crown prosecutor Annabelle Sheppard said the victim was “extremely relieved” following the plea.
“I think the process has been really positive for him,” Sheppard said outside the courtroom.
“I think the quality of evidence and the credibility definitely played a role (in Boucher’s guilty plea),” she said. “He was able to see and hear the testimony upfront before his trial. It definitely had an impact.”
The Montreal archdiocese issued a statement immediately following Boucher’s guilty plea, praising the two victims’ “courage” in coming forward. “The abusive behaviour they described is deplorable,” it said.
In the same statement, Archbishop Christian Lépine called Boucher’s case a “scandal that is a source of tremendous sadness. We will never accept that such crimes be committed and remain concealed,” Lépine said.
Boucher has worked in churches in Montreal, LaSalle, Dorval, Town of Mount Royal and Senneville. He also served as chaplain at McGill University.
According to the archdiocese, proceedings are underway to establish what should become of his clerical status.
Boucher was stripped of all priest duties when the archdiocese first learned of the complaint, in December 2015.
Diocese of Charleston releases names of 42 SC priests accused of sexual misconduct
By Robert Behre, Gregory Yee and Rickey Dennis
The Post and Courier
The Roman Catholic Church late Friday released its list of 42 South Carolina priests who have a credible allegation of child sexual misconduct — 10 more than it reported five years ago.
Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said the list was released “in the spirit of transparency and accountability.” He said he hopes publishing the names of the priests will help bring healing to the victims and their families who have been “grievously harmed by the betrayal of priests and church leadership.”
“The victims of sexual abuse and their families have suffered much pain and are understandably hurt and angry,” he said. “We must continue to pray and care for our brothers and sisters who have experienced this trauma inflicted by priests they trusted.
“We also need to honor the courage of those who have come forward to share the most intimate and painful experiences of their entire lives,” he added. “My heart hurts for the victims and the damage this has caused to them and to their families.”
PDF: Names of priests accused of child sexual misconduct within the Diocese of Charleston
A range of names and dates
The church released the names in four separate lists. No one on any of the lists still serves as a priest.
The longest of the four lists contains 21 names of diocesan priests who were ordained between 1940 and 1994. All but four are deceased. The list does not mention the parishes or institutions where they served.
The church also listed six others who were visiting priests or with a religious order. All are either deceased, departed or dismissed from the ministry, except for two whose statuses are unknown but are believed to have left the country, the church said.
A third list includes seven priests who served in South Carolina without incident but face a credible allegation of child sexual misconduct or abuse in another state.
For instance, the late Rev. Robert E. Spangenberg served as a pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church in downtown Charleston from 1990 through 1993, but his service here has not yet led to a credible allegation against him. However, Spangenberg was among more than 300 Roman Catholic priests named by a grand jury in Pennsylvania last year.
The final list includes eight priests listed because of a class action settlement payment. The only one on that list who is not dead left the Catholic priesthood in 1983.
Decades of abuse
Behind the priests’ names are stories that stretch back to at least the 1950s.
The Rev. Eugene Luke Condon was considered popular during his time here but pleaded guilty in 1998 to committing lewd acts on boys.
Investigators looking into Condon discovered a trunk containing about 150 photographs of naked adolescent boys taken in the rectory of Stella Maris Catholic Church on Sullivan’s Island.
Another Charleston church official named was the Rev. Raymond DuMouchel, who died in 2006 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually assaulted three young women in the 1950s in Charleston.
The Rev. Justin Goodwin, who died in 1995 at age 90, was arrested the year before for molesting children between 1978 and 1979 when he was the priest at Blessed Sacrament Church in West Ashley.
Church officials responded by placing him on administrative leave in 1994, telling him not to associate with children and forbade him from celebrating Mass.
Goodwin’s four victims ultimately received $37,500 each from the diocese. No support for medical or psychological treatment was offered when they settled with the diocese.
Basil Congro, a former pastor in Charleston, was put on administrative leave in 2002 and not allowed to function as a priest.
Congro, who was pastor of Jesus, Our Risen Savior Catholic Church in Spartanburg, was suspended after the Diocesan Sexual Abuse Advisory Board determined a man’s abuse allegation against him was credible.
Congro was accused of the abuse in the 1980s, when the victim was between 15 and 19 and when Congro was a priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in East Islip, N.Y. He also appears on the list as having a credible allegation against him in South Carolina.
Congro, who moved here in the early 1990s, also was pastor of St. Patrick and Our Lady of Mercy in Charleston, St. Mary on Yonges Island, Saints Frederick and Stephen on Edisto Island, and St. Anthony in Florence.
He also was chaplain pro tem at Christ the Divine Teacher at The Citadel.
South Carolina is the most recent state for which the Catholic Church unveiled a list of priests who sexually abused minors, part of its ongoing campaign to reckon with a dark chapter of its past and to help victims of it heal.
At least 14 other state dioceses have released their collection of names since the Pennsylvania grand jury report in July.
Even as these lists are made public, a sense of closure can be elusive. David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and current volunteer director for SNAP in Missouri, said the first priority is stopping further abuse.
“The single most ignored question is how many years have Catholic officials sat on these names,” Clohessy said.
Diocese of Metuchen, NJ failed to name 9 sexually abusive priests in list of credibly accused
Nick Muscavage, Bridgewater Courier News
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| St. John Vianney's Church in the Colonia section of Woodbridge |
METUCHEN, New Jersey - Clergy abuse victim advocates claim the Diocese of Metuchen failed to name eight more priests, in addition to one they named previously, accused of child sexual abuse in its list of credibly accused clergy it released last month.
According to Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), at least two priests alleged to have sexually abused children, in addition to the Rev. Romano Ferraro who they previously named, were also assigned to St. John Vianney Church in the Colonia section.
Ferraro, who later was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Massachusetts for raping a 7-year-old boy there, came to Metuchen in the 1980s under the watch of then-Bishop Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick was defrocked by the Vatican last month after claims of sexual abuse of a child and young adult men were found credible by the church.
Unbelievable!
Edward M. DePaoli, who was a priest with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, served at St. John Vianney between 1988 and 1991, according to a write-up of his allegations and criminal history on the website of Horowitz Law.
DePaoli was convicted in 1986 of receiving child pornography through the mail, according to a 2005 grand jury report cited on www.adamhorowitzlaw.com. DePaoli went for treatment in 1986 after his arrest, which proved unsuccessful, according to the post.
"He was diagnosed with a sexual compulsion and relapsed repeatedly — purchasing child pornography even while residing at a treatment center," according to Horowitz Law. Two years later, he wound up at the Diocese of Metuchen.
"He was allowed to minister despite reports to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that his addiction to pornography continued, that he made sexual comments about an 8th-grade girl during a sermon, and even that he had molested a 12-year-old girl years earlier," according to the write-up on Horowitz Law. "A nun in 1996 informed officials that she was worried about the safety of the children in her parish. She was fired for speaking out."
DePaoli was laicized in 2004.
The Rev. John Butler
In 2002, the Rev. John Butler, an associate pastor of St. John Vianney Church, was accused of misconduct with a minor 40 years earlier on Long Island, New York. He was also left off of the list issued by the diocese in February.
The Diocese of Metuchen at the time said someone called with allegations of abuse that took place in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York between 1958 and 1964.
A Brooklyn man, who was 50 at the time, said it was he who brought the allegations to the Diocese of Metuchen as well as the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. The man, whose name the Home News Tribune withheld in a report, alleged the molestation occurred when he was a choir boy and altar boy at St. Joseph's Church in Kings Park, which is located in Suffolk County on Long Island.
The man said Butler was transferred from the parish in 1964. He said he has been making the allegations to church officials since he was a teenager, but no one did anything about them until he recently contacted the Diocese of Metuchen.
"My belief is that the list they put out was very self-serving," said Crawford. "If a member of clergy abused anybody — regardless of where they abused them —and they served in your parish community, I as a parishioner would want to know that."
Tara Smith, spokesperson for the Diocese of Metuchen, said the priests named in the February list were only those the church found to have credible accusations of child sexual abuse who belonged to the Diocese of Metuchen.
"In an abundance of caution, the Diocese of Metuchen recently hired an independent law firm to again review the files of the 344 diocesan priests, who have served in the diocese since its founding in 1981. The review yielded no new cases," she said in a statement. "The list of 10 diocesan priests, released by the Diocese of Metuchen on Feb. 13, included only the names of those who belonged to the Diocese of Metuchen, as was noted clearly in the disclosure."
Crawford, however, said that if a priest was transferred from another diocese to the Diocese of Metuchen, as Ferraro was, the local bishop needed to approve it.
"What are you saying by not listing them?" Crawford asked. "If somebody was known to abuse anywhere, and then you allowed them with your permission to be stationed here, whether you knew of the abuse or not, and now we know, would you not want to alert the people of that community who you represent, who you serve as a bishop?"
Crawford said the Diocese of Metuchen should have also named six more priests with accusations of sexual abuse, whether it be against a child or an adult, in addition to Ferraro, DePaoli and Butler.
"The Church cannot change the past or take away the pain from those who have suffered, but progress has been made and steps have been taken in the last two decades to ensure safe environments for everyone, especially children," said Smith, the spokesperson for the Diocese of Metuchen. "The diocese has comprehensive policies in place to respond and prevent the sexual abuse of minors, which includes training programs, background checks, and zero-tolerance policies."
More priests
In 2013, it was announced that the Rev. Kevin Duggan, pastor of St. James the Less in Jamesburg, would leave the ministry until an alleged claim of sexual misconduct was resolved.
Duggan, who served at St. James the Less since August 2009, was accused of sexually abusing a developmentally challenged adult at St. James Parish in Woodbridge more than 20 years ago, the Diocese of Metuchen said at the time.
Parishioners of the church were told of the allegation when a letter from then-Bishop Paul Bootkoski was read during Mass. Duggan, who took himself out of ministry for treatment of alcoholism, was due to return to the parish soon, when the alleged claim of abuse was announced.
Msgr. Raymond Cole was also temporarily removed in 2013 as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in response to an allegation that he sexually abused a minor at St. Mary Parish in South Amboy, where he was associate pastor in the late 1970s.
Law enforcement authorities have declined to pursue charges because the statute of limitations had expired, but Cole was set to face a canonical trial, Bootkoski said at the time.
St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in Metuchen. (Photo: ~File)
Cole, who formerly served as executive director of the diocese Department of Pastoral Life, has “steadfastly” denied the charge, Bootkoski wrote in a letter to parishioners.
In 2003, George Farrell, an assistant priest at St. Matthew the Apostle Church in Edison, took a voluntary leave of absence because of "inappropriate communications" over the internet between him and a minor, the Diocese of Metuchen said at the time.
"There are no criminal charges related to this," the diocese said at the time.
Farrell began teaching religion at St. Pius X Regional High School in Piscataway in 1987 and became a campus minister at St. Peter the Apostle High School in New Brunswick in 1990, according to a biography on the St. Matthew website.
He was an organist at Edison's Guardian Angel Church and became director of music at Our Lady of Victories Church in Sayreville in 1991. He was appointed parochial vicar, an assistant position, at St. Matthew in 1998.
In 2008, a federal grand jury indicted the Rev. Tomasz Adam Zielinski, a Polish priest who served as a parochial vicar at Christ the King Church in Manville, which is now known as Christ the Redeemer, on charges that he groped a 16-year-old girl sitting next to him on an airplane flight.
He surrendered to special agents of the FBI and was charged with one count of abusive sexual contact aboard an aircraft, which departed from Warsaw, Poland and was bound for the United States.
The Rev. A. Gregory Uhrig, who works as a weekend assistant at Our Lady of Lourdes in the Whitehouse Station section of Readington in the diocese, is alleged to have kissed and groped a child four decades ago.
Uhrig was one of the 300 priests named in the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report who allegedly abused more than 1,000 children over several decades but went unpunished by church authorities.
The allegations in the Pennsylvania report were first made public in 2010, when a 44-year-old woman made a complaint to the Diocese of Allentown of sexual abuse at the hands of Uhrig when she was 13, according to the report. After being placed on leave by the Diocese of Metuchen, where Uhrig worked since 1995, the allegations were found not proven by a canonical trial, and by the time the charges were reported to law enforcement, the statute of limitations had expired.
Uhrig has denied the allegations since they were first made, according to diocesan officials.
The Diocese of Trenton named Florencio Tumang in its list of priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse. Tumang, who is deceased, also served at St. John Vianney in Colonia and Crawfod believes he should have been listed in the Diocese of Metuchen's list, which named 11 priests in all.
According to Crawford, there are more priests that are known to have allegations of sexual abuse across the state's four other Catholic dioceses that were not named in the larger list in addition to the ones who served within the Diocese of Metuchen.
Priest sentenced to six years in prison for child sex abuse
Arielle Zionts Rapid City Journal A judge overruled the requests of the defense lawyer and prosecutor when he sentenced a priest to six years in prison Friday for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl inside a Rapid City church last fall.
What the lawyers asked for is "not adequate" for John Praveen's crime, Judge Robert Mandel said at the Rapid City state court.
Mandel said his job was to judge Praveen, not the Catholic Church, but he must take into account that the crime was worsened by the fact that Praveen abused his authority as a priest.
We're "deeply thankful for the outcome," the victim's mother said in a phone call after the sentencing. She said the judge's understanding of the seriousness of the crime is "deeply healing" to her daughter and the family is extremely pleased with the "very sensitive and caring" way the police and Pennington County State's Attorney Office handled the case.
The sentencing came after Praveen, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of having sexual contact with a child under the age of 16, a crime that carries a maximum 15-year punishment. As part of the plea deal, the prosecution dropped another charge that allegedly occurred earlier in September 2018. Both Mark Vargo, Penning County state's attorney and defense lawyer John Murphy said in court that Praveen admitted the other accusation, which took place in the victim's home, to police.
The plea deal also said the prosecution would ask for a jail sentence rather than prison. Vargo asked Mandel to send Praveen to the maximum jail sentence of one year. Murphy asked for a 180-day sentence, saying his client admitted guilt, was found to have a low risk of re-offending and has already been punished with a high bond and not being able to find a place to stay due to being "vilified" in the media and community.
Praveen admitted in a signed document to touching the girl's breasts above her clothes without her consent for sexual gratification, while in a basement classroom of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rapid City. Vargo said Praveen "solicited" the girl in a confession booth, found her as she tried to hide, and reached underneath her sweater to touch her above the leotard she was wearing.
I "send my sincere apologies to the family and the victim about what I have done," Praveen said through tears in court Friday. He said he knows saying sorry isn't enough, and that he wishes he could take back what he did. He promised to never hurt anyone again.
Praveen joined the Diocese of Rapid City for a 10-year assignment in December 2017 and first worked in Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation. In June 2018, Praveen transferred to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and worked there until he was arrested and charged Oct. 2 2018.
The victim and her immediate family did not attend the sentencing and it appeared that no local priest attended as they have in the past.
Both Vargo and the victim's mother — through a letter read by Kelsey Weber, a deputy state's attorney — described the psychological, social and spiritual damage Praveen caused to the victim, her family and the wider Catholic community. Vargo, the mother and Murphy also all criticized, to varying degrees, the Rapid City Diocese's response the incident.
"It's difficult to explain the damage done to the mind and future potential of our daughter, ir-erasable memories and life-long effects that the choices of John Praveen have caused," the mother wrote. "His actions have affected her views of her personal value, her personal voice and how men value her. When she says no, should anyone listen?"
"His attack was not only on her body, but her soul, dignity, emotional development and sexuality," the mother wrote. Praveen "knew exactly what he was doing" since priests learn about their responsibilities and the sacredness of the body during their extensive training.
She wrote that Praveen solicited his daughter during confession, a place that is supposed to be about trust and respect, and abused her after giving Mass while wearing his priestly garb.
"Where and when he perpetrated the crimes adds to our horror and his culpability," she wrote. "He had every outward and inward reminder of who he was and what his responsibly was" but he abused her anyways.
The mother wrote that her daughter was able to run away and hid from Praveen "only to have him hunt her down" and keep abusing her. She pleaded with him to stop as he kissed her neck and face while holding down her arms.
Praveen has caused her daughter to question how God views her and the credibility of the church, and since she was targeted in the confession booth, she can no longer fully participate in her faith, the mother wrote. Her daughter was then re-traumatized when Praveen was briefly out of jail after a woman posted his $10,000 cash-only bond.
You need to find a church where the pastor actually believes in God!
She wrote that her older daughter has decided to completely leave the Catholic Church while her son feels guilt for being unable to stop Praveen. The family has been isolated by other relatives who don't understand how they are trying to maintain faith after the incident.
Praveen's abuse also harmed the credibility of the church and all priests, and "other victims who have never seen any justice but read about yet another case in the paper," the mother wrote.
"We suffered a profound sense of abandonment by our church for several months due to lack of outreach, lack of response to our expressed needs for her, lack of fervor in solving the problems and improving procedures. We looked to our church for comfort, correction of the lies his actions taught her and direct care of her soul. Unfortunately, despite nice public statements of ministering and care, that was not her experience," she wrote. "We fear that once he serves his sentence he will return to India to no consequences" because local church leaders "have not indicated to us that they will advocate remotely for his removal."
All U.S. priests convicted of sex crimes are sent to intensive treatment after serving their sentence, Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss said in a previous email. After treatment, they are either suspended or laicized, what many people refer to as "defrocked." A suspension means a priest can no longer wear clerical attire, has no priestly duties, and lives a life of prayer and penance under the supervision of a bishop. Laicization is a process conducted by the Vatican and means while technically still a priest, the priest lives his life as a lay person.
An email to the archbishop of Hyderabad asking if if Praveen will receive treatment and what role he will serve was not returned. But Murphy said a representative from Praveen's order said they plan to expel him when he returns to India.
After Weber finished reading the mother's letter, Vargo said that he's worried if Praveen couldn't control himself in a church, how can he be expected to control his actions in the future.
He said Praveen has received letters of support from those who barely know him while "no one seems to care" about his victim. He also that when one of the victim's relatives told a priest that she was angry about what happened, the priest told the relative that maybe she never had a relationship with God. Those who "rallied around a predator" because he is a man of God did so at the expense of a child of God, Vargo said.
The family's fear of what would happen when reporting Praveen is "exactly what transpired," Vargo said.
I hate it when parishioners stand behind a criminal predator and against a child victim and their family. It is a symptom of how sick some churches are where God is not really present.
Murphy said both sides are "baffled" by the response of the church community and hierarchy. He accused priests of using Praveen as a "pawn in their public relations game" when they invited a Washington Post reporter to tag along as they visited Praveen in jail, without the prior consent of Praveen. The visit was described in a positive, front-page Washington Post story about how a priest and his congregation were dealing with Praveen's arrest within the context of the global Catholic child sex abuse crisis.
The Rapid City Diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Salina, Kansas Diocese releases names of clergy
in sex abuse investigation
Last September, Bishop Gerald Vincke hired the independent outside counsel of Cottonwood Law LLC. of Hillsboro to conduct a thorough review of clergy personnel files and identify any potential cases of clergy misconduct with minors.
The report found 14 cases of diocesan clergy abuse of a minor. None of the 14 priests are in active ministry today and all but two have died.
At this time, the Diocese of Salina is only releasing the names of clerics with substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor. Any cleric with an allegation of abuse of a minor that is unsubstantiated has been excluded from the list.
The KBI began it's own investigation into reports of clergy sexual abuse at the beginning of February. The Catholic Diocese of Salina is one of four dioceses in Kansas that the special KBI task force is investigating.
The names of the 14 priests were released on the Diocese website.
Bishop Jerry Vincke released the following statement in regards to the investigation:
In September of 2018, shortly after I arrived in Salina, I asked that an independent review be completed on our priest files. In this edition of The Register, you will find the results of that investigation. There are 14 diocesan priests who have substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor. Additionally, you will also find the results of the independent investigation conducted by the Order of Franciscan Minors Capuchin Province of St. Conrad, headquartered in Denver. They have listed 13 Capuchins who have served in our diocese at some point within their ministry and who have credible allegations of abuse of a minor.
I begin by offering my apologies to all people who are victims of clergy abuse and to the families of any person who was abused. My heart aches for you. I am sorry for any time in the past when the diocese did not appropriately respond to the plea of an individual who was a victim of abuse. There have been times in the past when the Church failed to address the needs of the people who are victims in favor of protecting the reputation of the priest. I am sorry for any time in the past when the Church attempted to solve the issues on their own instead of informing the proper law enforcement of an allegation. By our omission, we committed a terrible injustice to all people who are victims of abuse. We realize that the majority of the clergy abuse occurred decades ago; however, the wounds of that abuse are very deep. I have made mistakes, too. I haven’t always given the people who are victims of clergy abuse my best attention and prompt response.
Bishop Vincke says national news of sexual abuse involving children prompted him to investigate allegations at his own diocese. He believes there are no accused priests still practicing at the Catholic Diocese of Salina.
The KBI says people needing to come forward to report abuse can do so by calling the Kansas Protection Report Center at 1-800-922-5330, the KS Crime Hotline at 1-800-KS CRIME or sending an email message to clergyabuse@kbi.ks.gov.
Here is the list of substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor (or vulnerable adult).
• Louis Bachand
Year of birth: 1931
Year of ordination: 1957
Last known status: Deceased 1991
Estimated time frame of abuse: late 1950s-early 1960s
Abuse reported: 2011
Diocesan action: Priest was deceased at time of reported allegation. Diocese conducted an investigation.
• Maurice Dion
Year of birth: 1917
Year of ordination: 1944
Last known status: Deceased 2004
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1960s-1970s
Abuse reported: 2002
Diocesan action: Diocesan investigation was ongoing at the time of the priest’s death. Allegations were not substantiated until after the priest had passed away.
• Christian Dreiling
Year of birth: 1887
Year of ordination: 1915
Last known status: Deceased 1960
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1930s
Abuse reported: 1939
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. In 1940, he was placed on diocesan and court-ordered leave, which lasted eight years, due to criminal activity. During his leave, Father Dreiling received five years of treatment. Treatment was found successful, and Father Dreiling was re-instated to ministry from 1948 to his death.
• Roger Hough
Year of birth: 1936
Year of ordination: 1964
Last known status: Deceased 2018
Estimated time frame of abuse: 2001-2002
Abuse reported: 2002
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation and removed priest from ministry in 2005. He was ordered by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome to live a life of prayer and penance.
• Louis Mattas
Year of birth: 1928
Year of ordination: 1960
Last known status: Deceased 2011
Estimated time frame of abuse: mid 1960s and early 1980s
Abuse reported: 2005 and 2007
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. The 2005 allegation was unable to be proven. The 2007 allegation was substantiated. Father Mattas was ordered by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome to live a life of prayer and penance.
• William Merchant
Year of birth: 1911
Year of ordination: 1938
Last known status: Deceased 1975
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1960s-1970s
Abuse reported: 1968, 1999, 2000-2004
Diocesan action: The 1968 and 1999 allegations were not investigated at that time. The 2000-2004 allegations were investigated.
• John Moeder
Year of birth: 1931
Year of ordination: 1957
Last known status: Deceased 2012
Estimated time frame of abuse: late 1970s
Abuse reported: 2018
Diocesan action: Priest was deceased at time of reported allegation. Diocese conducted an investigation.
• Thomas O’Donohoe
Year of birth: 1887
Year of ordination: 1910
Last known status: Deceased 1951
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1943-1945
Abuse reported: 2004
Diocesan action: Priest was deceased at time of reported allegation. Diocese conducted an investigation.
• Robert Reif
Year of birth: 1939
Year of ordination: 1967
Last known status: Laicized 2006
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1970s-1980s
Abuse reported: 1986, 2002, 2005
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. Suspended from ministry and sent away for treatment from 1986-1987. Was granted a leave of absence in 1988 and did not return to the Diocese of Salina.
• Allen Scheer
Year of birth: 1962
Year of ordination: 1995
Last known status: Convicted and Laicized 2012
Estimated time frame of abuse: 2012
Abuse reported: 2012 (Abuse occurred with a vulnerable adult/person with disabilities, as defined by Substantive Norms for More Grave Delicts, Art. 6, § 1, 1°)
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. Removed from ministry in 2012 and began laicization process.
• Robert Schleiter
(Diocese of Wichita)
Year of birth: 1926
Year of ordination: 1954
Last known status: Laicized 1969; Deceased 1995
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1950s
Abuse reported: 1957, 1980, 2003
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. Priest was asked to leave the Salina Diocese in 1957, and he did. In 1980, no response to the allegation. In 2003, the same individual who reported in 1980 reported again, and the diocese responded appropriately.
• Eugene Senecal
Year of birth: 1912
Year of ordination: 1940
Last known status: Deceased 1975
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1960s-1970s
Abuse reported: 1994, 2002
Diocesan action: Priest was deceased at time of reported allegation. Diocese conducted an investigation.
• Arthur Van Speybroeck
Year of birth: 1875
Year of ordination: 1902
Last known status: Left Diocese of Salina sometime after 1908
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1907
Abuse reported: 1907
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. Priest left Diocese of Salina after the allegation.
• John Wlash
Year of birth: 1929
Year of ordination: 1955
Last known status: Deceased 2009
Estimated time frame of abuse: 1972-1978
Abuse reported: 2002
Diocesan action: Diocese conducted an investigation. Priest retired immediately following the allegation.
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