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York, Pa defrocked priest pleads guilty to indecently assaulting 2 altar boys
Liz Evans Scolforo
York Dispatch
A 76-year-old defrocked Catholic priest who lives in West Manchester Township has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two altar boys when he served at a Harrisburg church.
John G. Allen, of the 1600 block of Kenneth Road, pleaded guilty in Dauphin County Court on Thursday morning to all of the charges against him, according to Jennifer Gettle, that county's chief deputy district attorney.
As part of his negotiated plea agreement, Allen will be sentenced to five years of probation, Gettle said. She declined further comment until after sentencing.
Defense attorney Brian Perry said state-sentencing guidelines call for probation or a minimum sentence of up to nine months in county prison.
"The district attorney took into consideration his age, his health and the specific allegations," Perry said. "We're reserving our comments for sentencing, but John has accepted full responsibility."
Allen pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors — two counts each of indecent assault against a child under 13, indecent assault of a child under 16 and corruption of minors.
He remains free on $25,000 unsecured bail pending his sentencing hearing, set for Jan. 21 before Common Pleas Judge Deborah E. Curcillo.
Dauphin County detectives arrested Allen on March 14, 2019, District Attorney Fran Chardo has said.
The crimes: Allen indecently touched the altar boys from 1997 to 2002 while he served as a priest at St. Margaret Mary's Alacoque Church on Herr Street in Harrisburg, court documents state.
In October 2018, Victim 1 reported to police that Allen would come up behind him, grab his buttocks and look down on him.
Defrocked Catholic priest John G. Allen, of West Manchester Twp., is accused of molesting two altar boys at a Harrisburg church in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to the Dauphin County DA's Office.
"These occurred inside the church. … The defendant did this to him over 10 times," documents state. "The defendant assaulted him from (the time) he was 10 years old to 13 years old."
The assaults stopped in 2002 when Allen was removed from the parish by the Harrisburg Catholic Diocese, according to court documents, which state he was later defrocked by the Catholic Church.
On March 2, 2019, Victim 2 told Dauphin County detectives that Allen "repeatedly grabbed his buttocks on different occasions" inside the church when the boy was serving as an altar boy, documents state.
2 years of assaults: He also told detectives that he was 12 years old when Allen first indecently assaulted him and that the assaults continued until he was 14 years old, which was in 1999, documents state.
Allen also touched the boy's genitals when the boy was 12, according to court documents.
County detectives began investigating after speaking with Victim 1, according to a previous news release from Chardo's office.
"Allen's name appeared on the Harrisburg Diocese list of priests accused of past molestations and was named as an abuser in the (Pennsylvania) Attorney General's grand jury report," the news release states. "In February 2002, Allen was removed as pastor of St. Margaret Mary's Church after a man reported to the Diocese that Allen had abused him as a boy."
Defrocked in 2006: At the request of the Harrisburg Diocese, the Catholic Church removed Allen from the priesthood in February 2006, according to the news release.
According to the Diocese of Harrisburg's online list of accused priests, Allen served at churches in the Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster, New Cumberland, Steelton, Lebanon and Selinsgrove areas between 1970 and 2002.
The Diocese of Harrisburg released a statement in March 2019 after Allen's arrest. It states, in part:
"The Diocese of Harrisburg removed John Allen from ministry 17 years ago immediately upon receiving a credible allegation of child sexual abuse against him. That allegation was also turned over to law enforcement and publicly announced by the Diocese at that time.
"Every allegation of child sexual abuse concerning Allen has been reported by the Diocese to multiple law enforcement authorities. Allen’s name was released by the Diocese of Harrisburg in our list of clergy, deacons and seminarians with allegations of child sexual abuse on August 1, 2018, and he was included in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report."
The release expressed "heartfelt sorrow and apologies to all survivors of clergy sexual abuse."
‘Credibly accused’ former RI priest charged with child molestation
TARGET 12
by: Eli Sherman
Posted: Nov 5, 2020 / 05:29 PM EST
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A former priest named to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence’s list of “credibly accused” clergymen last year was arrested on multiple charges of child molestation, according to R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha.
John Petrocelli, 75, was indicted by a statewide grand jury on three counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second degree molestation, according to state prosecutors. The indictment was unsealed after he was arraigned in Providence Superior Court where he pleaded not guilty.
The grand jury alleged Petrocelli committed multiple acts of child molestation against three male victims under the age of 14 between November 1981 and October 1990.
“There is nothing more critical to the mission of my office than to deliver justice on behalf of victims and of the people of Rhode Island, regardless of the time that has passed after the alleged offense,” Neronha said in a statement. “Our ongoing review of alleged misconduct by clergy in Rhode Island is intended to achieve that result wherever possible.”
The charges stemmed from an ongoing investigation headed by Neronha’s office and R.I. State Police, who have spent more than a year investigating claims of sexual abuse of children at the hands of priests and other clergymen over several decades.
Petrocelli was ordained as a priest in 1971, according to court documents, and appointed to St. Ann Church in Providence. Five years later, he became assistant pastor at the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Providence where he served until 1981.
The Thursday charges are not the first time accusations of child molestation have surfaced against the man. In 1981, Petrocelli was assigned to the Holy Family Church in Woonsocket, where he was later accused of abusing a young boy. In 2003, a Lincoln man filed a lawsuit against the Diocese, alleging Petrocelli abused him in the late 1980s, according to news reports and court documents filed at the time.
The charges filed Wednesday are related to Petrocelli’s time spent at Holy Family Parish, according to prosecutors.
The church settled with the man — along with 35 other people who claimed they were molested by priests — for $14 million, although 12 News reported in 2007 that the man continued to fight the church over statute of limitations.
Prior to the allegations, Petrocelli was also assigned to Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence from 1990 to 1994, and St. Joseph Hospital in Providence from 1994 to 2002, according to the Diocese.
After the lawsuit against him came to light, the church placed Petrocelli on a leave of absence, according to news reports at the time. The Diocese said it removed him from ministry in 2002, which would have been around the same time the Lincoln man contacted the Diocese to report he had been molested, according to court documents.
In a statement, the Diocese reiterated that point.
“Petrocelli was removed from the ministry nearly twenty years ago, in 2002, following receipt of credible allegations of abuse, which were promptly reported to law enforcement,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement.
In 2019, the Diocese released a list of 50 priests and other clergymen it said were “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors since the 1950s, which included Petrocelli. The term “credible accused” has no legal bearing, but is used by the church to describe allegations it has investigated internally and concluded to be plausible.
Retired Rhode Island State Police Maj. Kevin O’Brien, who leads the diocese’s Office of Compliance, helped put together the report after reviewing 70 years of files.
A Target 12 review of the report at the time showed the 50 priests and other clergymen were assigned to 185 Rhode Island institutions, including churches, schools hospitals and Catholic youth organizations.
Around the same time, the attorney general entered into an agreement with the Diocese, which provided his office and state police with access to all complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy since 1950.
The court set bail at $50,000 with surety, and a judge ordered no contact with victims or minors under age of 16, according to the attorney general’s office. His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 19, and he’ll have a pre-trial hearing in February.
Petrocelli’s arrest marks the first to come out of that investigation, which remains open and ongoing.
Pedophile priest Paul Shanley, key figure in Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, dead at 89
Updated 2:14 PM; Today 2:14 PM
By Anne-Gerard Flynn | Special to The Republican
WARE — Convicted pedophile priest Paul Shanley, a key figure in the Archdiocese of Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, has died. He was 89.
The Boston Archdiocese, which has paid millions of dollars to victims of clergy sexual abuse, including those with allegations against Shanley, released a statement acknowledging his death and what it called the “harm caused to so many.”
“The harm caused to so many by Paul Shanley is immeasurable," the statement said.
“His victims showed great courage in exposing his crimes and fighting for justice both within the criminal justice system and the Church. We are indebted to Shanley’s victims and all victims of clergy abuse for what they have done to stop the abuse, assure that the Church supports healing for those abused, and puts the protection of children at the top of our priorities.”
The Vatican removed Shanley from ministry only after he was arrested and numerous complaints of child sexual abuse were filed against him, even though the release, under court order, of archdiocesan records and documents showed church officials at the highest levels knew for decades of such allegations and continued to allow him to minister.
In her Jan. 31, 2002 profile on Shanley, Boston Globe Spotlight reporter Sacha Pfeiffer described the Dorchester-born Shanley, who attended St. John’s Seminary in Boston and was ordained in 1960, as a “handsome and charismatic” priest who did street ministry to alienated youth for two decades beginning in the 1960s, and his story as “among the most insidious cases of clergy sex abuse” her team investigated.
His death provides perspective on what it has taken and continues to take, particularly on the part of complainants willing to coming forward with allegations of clergy sexual abuse, to show the Catholic Church’s lack of accountability and transparency in addressing the issue, what clergy were involved either as abusers or protectors and the steps taken to conceal information in archives as well as rely on statutes of limitation around cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors.
The Boston Globe Spotlight team revealed decades of the archdiocese’s coverup of such abuse, and the movie based on the investigation highlighted the early efforts of Attorney Mitchell Garabedian to expose it and obtain diocesan documents in his suit against the Rev. John Geoghan, who was removed from ministry by the Vatican in 1998, and later murdered in prison where he had served one year of a 9-to-10 year sentence for sexually assaulting a child.
Asked about Shanley’s death, Garabedian, who represented 50 complainants who alleged sexual abuse by the priest, said, “Unfortunately, even though Paul Shanley has passed, courageous victims are still coming forward to try to heal and the Archdiocese of Boston must continue to be monitored with regard to practices of cover up concerning the safety of children.”
“The passing of Paul Shanley serves as a reminder of how great the emotional pain caused by a pedophile priest can be to so many innocent children and how dangerous an institution such as the Archdiocese of Boston can be when it chooses to cover up the evil acts of child abuse,” Garabedian added.
Amen! There is more on this story on Mass Live.
‘Hard times’ ahead for Church in Poland after Cardinal
historically sanctioned by Vatican
Paulina Guzik, Crux Now
Nov 7, 2020
KRAKÓW, Poland – In an unprecedented move for the Polish Church, the Vatican banned a retired cardinal from public ministry, public appearances, and the use of the bishop’s insignia.
Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz of Wrocław also cannot be buried in the archdiocesan cathedral after his death.
The disciplinary measures are a historic and symbolic moment for the Church in Poland.
When the Vatican embassy published the statement on Gulbinowicz on Friday, the cardinal was informed about the decision, but the archdiocese said his state of health meant he was probably unaware of what had just happened.
Father Rafał Kowalski, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Wrocław, told Crux the development “is a sign that things are not swept under the carpet in the Church and that there is no reduced tariff for anyone.”
The Vatican statement said the decision came as “a result of inquiries into accusations against Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz, and after analyzing other charges concerning his past, the Holy See has taken disciplinary measures.”
Although the Vatican statement didn’t give details on the “accusations” against Gulbinowicz, it included a requirement he give compensation to the St. Joseph Foundation, which was established by the Polish Bishops’ Conference to help victims of sexual abuse.
“People were hurt, and this is the moment to tell them – we’re sorry,” Kowalski told Crux.
The abuse crisis in Poland exploded after the release of a documentary on YouTube in May 2019 called Tell No One, by the filmmakers known as the Sekielski Brothers. The film documented a history of abuse and cover-up in the country and was viewed by more than 2.5 million people in less than 24 hours.
Soon after its release, an alleged victim using the pseudonym Karol Chum posted on Facebook that he was abused by Gulbinowicz, but never reported it to the Church authorities. However, after the archdiocesan offices were made aware of the post, they contacted the alleged victim, and he eventually filed an official canonical complaint against the cardinal.
He was allegedly abused by Gulbinowicz when he was a 15-year-old student at the Franciscan Minor Seminary.
His case was turned down by the state prosecutor in 2019, due to the statute of limitations. The Church proceeded with its own investigation, which ended with the disciplinary measures announced on Friday.
“Even if we’re talking about actions that took place decades ago, in the Church they are never going to be considered too old,” the Archdiocese of Wrocław said in a statement.
“The fact that we know publicly what penalty was imposed on the cardinal is a game changer,” Father Piotr Studnicki, head of the Child Protection Office of the Polish Bishops Conference, told Crux.
“People need to know whether the case was solved and what is the truth,” he said, adding that it is a visible sign of change in the communications strategy surrounding high-profile cases in the Church.
“It’s enough to compare it to the case of Juliusz Paetz, the deceased metropolitan of Poznan: It happened 20 years ago and we still don’t know how the case was processed,” he said.
Robert Fidura, a clerical sex abuse survivor, told Crux: “Finally – if such serious penalty was imposed and publicly announced, the reasons must have been grave.”
A once glorious past leads to a downfall
Gulbinowicz was an important figure in the communist-era Church in Poland. He became a Archbishop of Wrocław in 1975, and he was the one who hid the funds of the local branch of Solidarity when martial law was about to be imposed on the country in 1981.
Four years later John Paul II made him a cardinal. He resigned as Archbishop of Wrocław in 2004.
The Polish government also honored Gulbinowicz. President Lech Kaczyński decorated the cardinal with the Order of the White Eagle, and Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, IPN, called him “the unbroken cardinal” in light of his anti-communist activities.
However, historians at the IPN later discovered a darker history about the cardinal in the state archives.
“Before I studied the secret service documents, it seemed like Gulbinowicz was a positive hero,” Professor Rafał Łatka, a historian at the IPN, told Crux.
Łatka and co-author Filip Musiał will later this month publish a new book on the cardinal called Dialogue Needs to be Continued. Operational Conversations of Communist Secret Service with Cardinal Heryk Gulbinowicz. A Case Study.
Even if Gulbinowicz wasn’t an official agent of the communist secret service, historians claim his dealings with the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) – the communist secret service in Poland – for 16 years were harmful to the Church.
“Bishop Gulbinowicz informed neither Primate [Stefan] Wyszyński nor his successor Primate [Józef] Glemp about his meetings with the SB,” Łatka said, adding that any encounters between any clerics with the SB were officially prohibited by the bishops’ conference.
“It was thanks to those conversations with the regime that Gulbinowicz obtained a post he really wanted – becoming the metropolitan of Wrocław. It was the regime that wanted him in Wrocław, considering that he was not loyal to Cardinal Wyszyński, unlike the candidates previously indicated by the primate,” Łatka told Crux.
The professor also said the SB had information on Gulbinowicz’s homosexual relationships.
Several Polish priests confirmed in conversations with Crux that Gulbinowicz’s homosexuality was an open secret in the Church in Poland.
For Church in Poland, a Pandora’s box is opened
Many observers now say the Gulbinowicz case opens up Pandora’s box for the Church in Poland.
His case touches on several others now dominating the headlines in the country.
Bishop Edward Janiak was recently removed from the Diocese of Kalisz after allegations he covered up clerical sexual abuse were made earlier this year in Hide and Seek, a second documentary produced by the Sekielski Brothers.
Janiak was a priest in Wrocław and served as an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese under Gulbinowicz.
In addition, the cardinal was a close friend of Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk, a Polish Vatican diplomat who served as Apostolic Nuncio to his homeland from 1989-2010, and was therefore responsible for submitting names of possible bishops in the country. Kowalczyk later served as Archbishop of Gniezno from 2010-2014.
Journalist Tomasz Terlikowski said the sanctions against Gulbinowicz will cause an earthquake in the Church in Poland. “Now the actions of Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk should be looked at through a magnifying glass by the Vatican,” he wrote on Facebook.
Another close collaborator of Gulbinowicz was the recently retired archbishop of Gdańsk, Sławoj Leszek Głódź. When he was a priest, Głódź served as the driver for the cardinal’s secret meetings with regime officials.
Głódź has been accused of covering up clerical sexual abuse in his archdiocese, and an inquiry has been launched under the rules of Vos Estis Lux Mundi, the Vatican’s new anti-abuse legislation which came into effect last year.
“The history of bishops – including those that were dying as heroes – will be written anew,” Terlikowski wrote.
“A very hard time is ahead of us.”
Florida closes investigation into Catholic Church, alleged sexual abuse by 300+ priests
The Office of Statewide Prosecution released a statement on the conclusion of an investigation regarding the Catholic Church and alleged sexual abuse by priests.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution has closed a 2-year investigation regarding the Catholic Church and alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
On Friday, the Office of Statewide Prosecution announced it "found no evidence of ongoing, unreported, current sexual abuse of minors by church priests in Florida."
The state released a 19-page report on its findings, bringing to light new details surrounding the investigation.
The Office of Statewide Prosecution's investigation into the Catholic Church began in 2018 after reviewing a Grand Jury report from Pennsylvania about sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
That report from the grand jury listed more than 300 priests accused of sexual misconduct and described instances of cover-up, with several ties to Florida, according to state prosecutors.
The attorney general's office then launched a website for victims to come forward. For the first time Friday, the I-Team learned just how many tips the state received regarding clergy abuse: more than 260.
The state reports it investigated every allegation of sexual abuse it received, with the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
In a statement, Statewide Prosecutor Nicholas B. Cox said, "After a thorough investigation of every tip and every allegation in the church’s file, the Office of Statewide Prosecution found no evidence of ongoing, unreported, current sexual abuse of minors by church priests in Florida. We also conducted a comprehensive, historical review of allegations of sexual abuse against priests in Florida, and based on the facts of those allegations and the law, we are unable to prosecute any additional priests or church officials because the then-existing statute of limitations bars such prosecution and/or the alleged abuser is no longer alive."
The investigation revealed, historically, Florida was a state where priests accused of abusing children in other states were "routinely relocated." The report listed 81 priests who fit that description.
The state also identified 97 priests in Florida who had allegations against them of historical sexual abuse, and included a note next to each name, indicating why none of those priests could be prosecuted. The notes state factors like, "barred by statute of limitations", "previously prosecuted", and "deceased".
“As the Statewide Prosecutor, I treat such allegations extremely seriously. If any additional allegation is brought forward, I, and this office’s prosecutors, stand ready to investigate and prosecute any such allegations to the fullest extent possible under Florida law," Cox said.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) responded to the closing of the investigation on Friday with the following statement:
Florida’s Office of Statewide Prosecution has released a report on their investigation into Catholic sexual abuse in their state. We are grateful to the office for looking into this issue and urge them to keep their hotline and communication channels open.
The efforts by attorneys general in Florida has so far not resulted in the same arrests that we saw following the investigations in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Still, the report lays bare critical facts that show how Catholic officials protected and shifted abusers, preventing their prosecution and allowed “depravity, abuse, and criminal conduct” to continue in the state of Florida.
Stated plainly in the Florida report is a fact that is already known and understood by survivors and advocates: “This investigation uncovered acts by the Church and its personnel that enabled sexual abuse of minors in Florida by its priests and prevented or obstructed discovery, investigation, and prosecution of such crimes.” This exact same behavior has been found by every attorney general that has so far investigated sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and speaks to the nationwide use of the “circle of secrecy” that Pennsylvania A.G. Josh Shapiro detailed in his 2018 clergy abuse report. With each report, the truth becomes clearer: the institutional Catholic Church has actively worked to prevent parents and parishioners from learning about abusers to the detriment of children, families, and communities across the globe.
The report indicates that many of the still-living priests identified were only saved from prosecution by the expiration of the criminal statute of limitations. We hope that this news will awaken legislators in every state that has not yet abolished the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse to work to do so now so that future children are not prevented from seeking justice because of archaic laws. Such reform should be accompanied by civil SOL reform as well so that those institutions that covered-up for abusers can also be held accountable. We believe that this will be a huge help in preventing future cases of abuse.
While the report seems to indicate that current Catholic officials in Florida are properly routing complaints to the authorities, we nevertheless encourage all survivors to report to law enforcement themselves and to do so before going to the Church. We also urge the attorney general’s office to keep their reporting hotlines open – following the publication of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, hundreds more survivors came forward, empowered by an office that took their stories seriously. We suspect the same would be true in Florida.
The hotline to report child abuse to the Florida Department of Children and Families is 1-800-962-2873. You can also make a report online at myflfamilies.com or call 911.
Seattle Archdiocese Worker Gets 30 Months in Prison for Child Porn,
Facing Molestation Charges in California
BY SHORE NEWS NETWORK
NOVEMBER 6, 2020
Seattle, WA – A 61-year-old Issaquah, Washington, man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 30 months in prison for possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran. PHILIP B. GILBERT, who was employed in the IT department of the Archdiocese of Seattle, was arrested on state charges in May 2019. He was charged federally in October 2019 and pleaded guilty in June 2020. At the sentencing hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez noted that GILBERT will be transferred to custody in California where he is charged with sexual assault and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
According to documents in the case, in January 2019 an electronic service provider reported GILBERT’s account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for uploading images of child rape and molestation. After obtaining a court-authorized search warrant, law enforcement served the warrant at GILBERT’s residence and seized electronic devices. The devices contained 256 images of child pornography.
Following GILBERT’s arrest, a victim came forward to law enforcement and reported GILBERT molested her. Contra Costa County, California, has charged the defendant with multiple sexual abuse crimes against a minor for which he faces life in prison. Following his federal sentence, he will be transferred to California to resolve those charges. On the federal case, Chief Judge Martinez imposed ten years of supervised release to follow prison and $12,000 in restitution to the victims depicted in the various child pornography series that GILBERT possessed.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
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