The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, U.S., is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere. The Philadelphia abuses were substantially revealed through a grand jury investigation in 2005. In early 2011, a new grand jury reported extensive new charges of abusive priests active in the archdiocese. In 2012, a guilty plea by priest Edward Avery and the related trial and conviction of William Lynn and mistrial on charges against James J. Brennan followed from the grand jury's investigations. In 2013, Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Lynn was the first official to be convicted in the United States of covering up abuses by other priests in his charge and other senior church officials have been extensively criticized for their management of the issue in the archdiocese.
As of 2025, 13 priests and one archdiocesan school teacher have been convicted of possessing child pornography, rape, and other sexual abuse crimes.
2003 grand jury
In March 2002, the archdiocese released a statement that only 35 priests over the past 52 years had credible accusations of sexual abuse. District Attorney Lynne Abraham empaneled first grand jury to investigate this sexual abuse in September 2002. In the summer of 2002, Cardinal Bevilacqua in an interviewer stated that he never transferred a priest with a credible accusations of sexual abuse. Based on the statements from the archdiocese, the grand jury expected to uncover only a few cases.
Instead of a few cases, the 2003 grand jury found 120 case. The grand jury published an 18-page report
- It determined that Bevilacqua had indeed transferred priests.
- It accused Monsignor William Lynn, then in charge of priest personnel, with hiding crimes committed by priests and transferring them to other parishes. Lynn testified that the archdiocese felt compelled to report sexual abuse crimes to the police only if the victim complained to them directly. If the parent of a child reported abuse, the archdiocese would not notify police.
- It determined that the archdiocese was more focused on hiding the wrong doing of priests than of protecting children from them.
- It also found that the archdiocese would not notify parishes about sexual abuse crimes or allegations of crimes against their priests.
Due to the limitations on its time, the 2003 grand jury was forced to transfer its investigation to a second grand jury.
2005 grand jury
Cover-up by Cardinals Krol and Bevilacqua
On September 21, 2005, nearly 10 years after the death of Cardinal John Krol, a grand jury, impaneled by Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, announced that Krol was involved with the cover-up of a sex scandal against accused priests throughout the archdiocese, as was his successor, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua. Like the sex scandals in the Archdiocese of Boston, Krol and Bevilacqua transferred accused priests to other parishes throughout the archdiocese.
Using records subpoenaed from the archdiocese, the jury examined "secret archive" files for 169 priests and two deacons. To expose the extent of abuse and a "continuous, concerted campaign of cover-up", the jury documented 63 examples of abuse and where the abusers were assigned at the times of those attacks. The grand jury also demonstrated that nobody could be prosecuted due to Pennsylvania's statute of limitations and other conditions that protect the archdiocese from being criminally accountable.
Three weeks into the 2012 Lynn trial, the Philadelphia Inquirer editorialized that "the clear outlines of an alleged cover-up ... as far up as" Bevilacqua had already emerged in the testimony. While the judge compelled him to testify in a closed hearing in November 2011, before the trial, neither the prosecution nor the defense used any of the testimony in the trial. The cardinal died in January 2012.
Role of Cardinal Rigali in 2005
Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali adopted the policy of laicizing those who were accused and confirmed by investigations. Rigali, in cooperation with District Attorney Abraham and other district attorneys throughout the archdiocese, started the practice of both internal archdiocesan investigations, as well as external criminal investigations.
Rigali staunchly defended the actions of his two predecessors, Krol and Bevilacqua, when they were named as sponsors of a cover-up by the September 2005 grand jury.
Actions of Bishop Cistone
According to the 2005 investigation, while serving as assistant vicar for administration in 1996, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Cistone was involved with silencing a nun who tried to alert parishioners at St. Gabriel parish about abuse by a priest. According to the report, there were several other instances of priest sexual abuse which Cistone was complicit in covering up. The report also indicated that Cistone was most concerned with the public relations ramifications of the sexual abuse. The report also showed that when a sex abuse victim demanded to meet with Bevilacqua, Cistone refused the request, saying that allowing a sex abuse victim to meet with him would "set a precedent. When these revelations became public, Cistone expressed sorrow for "any mistakes in judgment." However, Cistone refused to discuss the matter further, saying, "[I]t would not serve any purpose to revisit the grand jury report and endeavor to recall the rationale for past decisions made in specific cases."
Cistone in 2009 expressed unhappiness with how little opportunity he had been given to respond to the 2005 Grand jury report., saying, "Unfortunately, the grand jury procedure, as followed in Philadelphia, did not allow for any opportunity to address such questions to offer explanation or clarification."
Use of the penile plethysmograph
During the abuse scandal, the reliability of the penile plethysmograph was questioned by some officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Later, these officials chose to seek therapy at an institution where the plethysmograph was not used. This, even though the officials were made aware of the fact that the test was used by most experts and was believed to be of value in diagnosing sexual disorders. Later, a grand jury found that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's decision to do so "had the effect of diminishing the validity of the evaluations and the likelihood that a priest would be diagnosed as a pedophile or ephebophile."
Mary Achilles
"In 2006, the archdiocese hired Mary Achilles, the state's first victim advocate, to review its treatment of victims after a 2005 grand jury report highlighted abuse by more than 50 priests over 50 years." Achilles, among other involvements in the field, has worked on the subject of restorative justice with Professor Howard Zehr of Eastern Mennonite University.
2011 grand jury
A second grand jury, in February 2011, accused the archdiocese, still under Rigali, of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after the first grand jury report had documented abuse by more than fifty priests. The 2011 grand jury report said that as many as 37 priests were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior toward minors. Rigali initially said in February "there were no active priests with substantiated allegations against them, but six days later, he placed three of the priests, whose activities had been described in detail by the grand jury, on administrative leave. He also hired an outside lawyer, Gina Maisto Smith, a former assistant district attorney who prosecuted child sexual assault cases for 15 years, to re-examine all cases involving priests in active ministry and review the procedures employed by the archdiocese." Three weeks later, most of those 37 priests remain active in the ministry.
Terence McKiernan, the president of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents from the abuse scandal in dioceses across the country, said "'[T]he headline is that in Philadelphia, the system is still broke.'" David J. O'Brien, who teaches Catholic history at the University of Dayton, stated, "The situation in Philadelphia is Boston reborn."
The appointment of Smith, the new outside lawyer for the archdiocese and a partner with the Ballard Spahr law firm, was criticized by SNAP's executive director, David Clohessy, who said "No lawyer or consultant is independent in any way, if they're picked and paid by Rigali. He can bring in a dozen more lawyers, but if he does what he did five years ago with the expert child-safety consultant and ignores every single recommendation, it's just going to be more empty promises and public relations." Clohessy was referring to the work of Mary Achilles. The 2011 grand jury found that "archdiocesan officials ignored all of Achilles' initial recommendations" ... Rigali hired Achilles again last week to perform the same service," according to one report. District Attorney R. Seth Williams said he respected Rigali's choice of Smith to lead the case review.
One commentator, Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, concluded, "Out of the church's many unpleasant confrontations with modernity, this is the starkest. It's tragically past time to send the message that priests can't do anything they want and hide their sins behind special privilege," and credited Philadelphia and District Attorney Williams with starting to send that message.
William Lynn trial
Monsignor William Lynn, the pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown, was arrested in February 2012, indicted in mid-March and, more than a week after the indictment, put on administrative leave by Archbishop Rigali. "According to a scathing grand jury report, Lynn, as secretary of clergy for the archdiocese, concealed the crimes of accused priests and put them in positions in which they could harm more children. Lynn is innocent and a victim of excessive zeal on the part of the District Attorney's Office, his lawyer, Jeff Lindy, said after his arrest." Lynn became the "most senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be tried on charges relating to the child sexual abuse scandal" and "the first U.S. church official ever charged with endangering children for allegedly failing to oust accused predators from the priesthood or report them to police".
Lynn went on trial in late March 2012. As the trial opened, Lynn and another of his attorneys, Thomas Bergstrom, were "insisting that [Lynn] tried to address the long-brewing sexual-abuse problem when he served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. [Deceased Cardinal] Bevilacqua and other superiors quashed his efforts .... The jury on Tuesday saw a 1994 list Lynn prepared that named 35 accused priests still on duty in the five-county archdiocese. Avery was on it [and a major subject on the opening day], and deemed 'guilty' of the abuse. The list also shows whether the archdiocese could still be sued over each allegation. Bevilacqua ordered that the list be shredded, although a copy survived".
The court heard Lynn testify on April 19, 2012, that the case of Stanley Gana "fell through the cracks" due to a job change. "A seminarian in 1992 told Lynn and Lynn's boss, the late Monsignor James Molloy, that he [the seminarian] had been raped throughout high school by ... Gana. The seminarian, who testified in person this week, gave Lynn and Molloy the names and parish of two other potential victims" but they made no contact with the victims. "Molloy told Gana to avoid contact with the seminarian because the allegations, if true, might be criminal. Lynn agreed with the assessment, according to his testimony. Asked why he didn't notify police, Lynn testified: 'Because we weren't required to.'" They did question Gana, who denied the charges. On April 25, 2012, two of Avery's victims testified, "represent[ing] a pillar" of the case against Lynn.
"[T]housands of confidential church records and years of abuse complaints against priests in the five-county archdiocese[, many of which] had been locked away for years in the so-called Secret Archives, church files that cataloged misconduct by priests", also came to light in the trial.
In Jun, 2012, Lynn was convicted of one of two child endangerment charges, and acquitted of a single count of conspiracy. He was sentenced to three to six years in prison. This was the first time a Catholic church official serving in an administrative position in a diocese was convicted in the United States for covering up child sexual abuse by priests
In December 2015, the Superior Court set aside Lynn's conviction and ordered a new trial because the trial judge spent so much time hearing about other victims going back to 1948- testify about matters that largely did not involve Lynn. The appeals court ruled that, in admitting the 21 extraneous cases, she had willingly admitted "prejudicial evidence." A three member appeals court panel shelved the conviction, and in February, 2016, the full court backed the decision of the panel. The Philadelphia County prosecutors appealed that decision to the State Supreme Court. Judge Theresa Sarmina, still the presiding judge of record, ruled that Lynn was a flight risk and must remain in Graterford prison until the State Supreme Court renders a decision. On July 26, 2016, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the appeal of District Attorney Williams. The court ruled that Lynn must be retried.
In August 2017, the district attorney announced that he would retry Lynn in 2017. Though Lynn, then stood un-convicted, it was first proposed that he remain in prison until early October, when a parole board had earlier ruled he could be released. In the end, however, the court decided to release him on August 4 under $250, 000 bond. He had served 33 months in prison and 18 months of house arrest. The latter did not count toward time-served.
In late March 2017 Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright struck down Lynn's claims that prosecutorial misconduct should be grounds to prevent a new trial. The defense had earlier shown that the prosecution did not inform it of a witness who had exculpatory evidence. It was believed that this new case involved a social worker, but it turned out to be a retired police detective, Joseph Walsh, who had been brought back to question the main witness, "Danny Doe" or "Danny Gallagher," a twenty-three-year-old man. . Walsh picked apart the claims of Gallagher and was told by an angry prosecutor was told he was destroying the prosecution case. Bright ruled that concealing the Walsh evidence was not "intentional" prosecutorial misconduct. She gave the defense 30 days to file an appeal. Msgr. Lynn's attorneys said there would be an appeal, and it will probably delay his retrial.
In 2016, Newsweek obtained a psychiatric report on Danny Gallagher, the alleged victim, that he admitted not giving his medical personnel accurate information about his medical and personal history. He also admitted that he had provided others with unreliable information regarding claims of sexual abuse. Though his story repeatedly changed, and he eventually disavowed most of the most lurid claims, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia eventually decided to end his case against it by paying Danny Gallaher something in the neighborhood of $5 million. The Philadelphia Inquirer, which played a large role in supporting the prosecution, opted not to comment on the Newsweek revelations. By then much of the Grand Jury material had become public, as well as police and medical reports on the main witness. Eventually it even came out that Danny Doe told dramatically conflicting stories, and the more dramatic and fantastic of them became public.
Walsh was called out of retirement to work on the case, but what he was expected to do was hotly contested. The prosecutors said Walsh was only to coach Danny Gallagher so he could testify effectively. Walsh said he was expected to investigate, and he conducted 35 to 40 interviews and found nine factual discrepancies. Twenty one of the interviews were conducted at St. Jerome parish and school. Walsh concluded that Danny was lying. For example, Danny said Father Avery first contacted him when he was working on the fifth grade bell team. Fifth grade boys did not have that duty as they were not strong enough for that duty. That was the work of eighth grade boys. Danny said Avery molested him after Avery presided at a July 1999 funeral. Avery had no funeral at that time. Danny offered dramatically different stories about how the two priests abused him. Then he said he made up the first stories and offered tales that were not so fantastic. The prosecutors never revealed that Gallagher offered different stories. Walsh obtained evidence from Danny's older brother that destroyed his claims against Fr. Engelhardt. Walsh repeatedly informed ADA Maruana Sorensen of his findings. She repeatedly said she believed everything Gallagher said.
Prosecutors said in late June that they planned to retry Brennan. However, Brennan accepted a plea of no contest in October 2016 and instead got just two years probation.
Lynn was sentenced to three to six years in state prison. Judge Sarmina said he had "turned a blind eye while 'monsters in clerical garb' sexually abused children and devastated the church and community". The sentence was just short of the maximum and well above what the defense favored.
In Decem 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court considered the remaining issues in Lynn's appeal and ordered a new trial for Lynn based on an evidentiary ruling at trial.
The Commonwealth appealed the Superior Court's ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on March 10, 2016, which the court denied in a per curiam order on July 26, 2016. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has since announced it will retry Lynn. Lynn was released in August 2016 after posting $250,000 in bai; he had served 33 of his minimum 36-month sentence.
In 2019, it was reported that Lynn had been suspended from ministry following the 2011 grand jury investigation.
Joseph L. Logrip
In December 2019, Archbishop Chaput accepted recommendations and found Joseph L. Logrip "unsuitable for ministry." Longrip had been suspended from public ministry following allegations of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s and an investigation soon followed. The results of the Archdiocesan Office of Investigation's investigation found that Longrip was "unsuitable for ministry." The results of the investigation were then forwarded to the Archdiocesan Professional Responsibilities Review Board, which also found Longrip "unsuitable for ministry." Chaput then accepted these recommendations and sent them to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for further analysis. Longrip had previously been placed on administrative leave in 2011, but was allowed to return to public ministry despite being determined to be "unsuitable" by the Review Board in 2014 as well.
Penitential service and other aftermath
In March 2011, Rigali invited Catholics to a special Stations of the Cross penitential service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. The purpose of the service, he wrote in his Lenten letter, was 'the forgiveness of all sins and reconciliation with God and in the community.' In commentary in the National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters reported he had heard only fifty people showed up at the penitential service.
Also in March 2011, reports emerged about an October 2003 that which had been apparently used by the archdiocese to prevent archdiocesan officials from reporting some information about alleged sex abuse by clergy to civil authorities. Any individual reporting alleged abuse by Church personnel was required to sign the form.
In April 2011, another commentator for NCR, Richard McBrien, a personal acquaintance with Rigali's, drew attention to the failure of Rigali to live up to the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. McBrien went on to note that in his opinion, relative to the second grand jury report, Rigali had "made an unfortunate mistake in fundamental logic by making a universal negative assertion that could be rebutted by even a single case to the contrary ... [by] denying the allegation that there were other abusive priests still at work in the Archdiocese ... [when] [s]oon thereafter he removed twenty-one priests." He also noted the parallels with Cardinal Bernard Law's stance and actions in Boston in 2002.
Resignation of Rigali and appointment of Chaput
In July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Rigali's resignation as archbishop of Philadelphia, which he had tendered in 2010 when he reached age 75. Rigali said that he "...offered an apology 'if I have offended' and 'for any weaknesses on my part,' but said he saw no particular connection between the timing of the Vatican accepting his resignation and turbulence" over the February grand jury report. The pope named Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver to succeed Rigali.
More reaction
In July 2011, Robert Huber at Philadelphia magazine published a 7,630-word article which opened with Rigali's question "Is it true?" about the 2011 grand jury report. It moved on to ask "Will the Catholic Church as we know it survive in Philadelphia?" as he began to tell the story of Joe, a 59-year-old who spoke of his abuse at the hands of Father Schmeer when in the ninth grade at Roman Catholic High School. Joe spoke this summer to "fellow parishioners at his church—St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Manayunk. The leader of Joe's men's group and a victims advocate for the archdiocese set up the meeting. Perhaps 30 people came. Joe discovered something, after he spoke, that shocked him. It was that other people saw him as a hero." The piece concluded with a critique from Donna Farrell, writing on behalf of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which began: "Unfortunately for Philadelphia magazine readers looking for honest, in-depth reporting, this piece is an agenda-driven travesty of salacious innuendo masquerading as journalism." Farrell said Huber had been given access to Achilles and Smith but "chose to omit these perspectives from his piece" and hence missed the "significant steps" the archdiocese had taken to rectify the situation. This left the piece "sensational, wildly unfair, and incomplete." Farrell is the director of communications for the archdiocese.
As the William Lynn trial proceeded in mid-April 2012, The Philadelphia Inquirer led an editorial: "Three weeks into a likely months-long landmark clergy sex-abuse trial, a Philadelphia jury already has seen the clear outlines of an alleged cover-up by Archdiocese of Philadelphia officials as far up as Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua." After detailing numerous testimonies of abuse, the editorial continued: "Both Lynn and [James] Brennan deny the allegations. Whatever the eventual verdicts, testimony likely will have removed all reasonable doubt as to the cover-up's existence, and the need for reform." Specifically, the paper went on to say: "Harrisburg lawmakers need to act on proposals still being fought by the state's Catholic bishops — most vocally by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput — that would waive civil statutes for a brief period to allow those victims to seek justice. As done in Delaware and California, a so-called "civil window" would further expose the abusers' dirty secrets and help lead to healing in the church, and beyond. State legislators need not await a jury verdict to do the right thing by abuse victims."
Child abuse legal reforms
On November 26, 2019, Pennsylvania Tom Wolf signed into law legislation which significantly reformed the state's child sex abuse statue. The new law: abolishes Pennsylvania's criminal statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse and extends the timeline victims have to file civil action against their abusers; clarifies penalties for failure to report child abuse; makes conversations with law enforcement agents exempt from non-disclosure agreements; and creates a fund for victims of sexual abuse to pay for abuse-related therapy. The provisions in the new legislation were also recommended by the 2018 grand jury report.
Reparations
On May 5, 2020, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that it now expected to pay $126 million in reparations. The archdiocese also said its Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program, which was established in 2018, has received a total of 615 claims, and had settled 208 of them for $43.8 million as of April 22, 2020. That averages out to about $211,000 per claim, which is in line with what other dioceses have been paying under similar programs. The same day, however, the total number of money which the Archdiocese of Philadelphia expects to pay in its sex abuse settlements was soon revised to $130 million by Archbishop of Philadelphia Nelson J. Perez.
Prominent civil suits
Monsignor Francis S. Feret
In 2006, a man reported to the archdiocese that Feret had sexually assaulted him during the 1970s when he was age nine. Feret had served as pastor of St. Adalbert Parish in Port Richmond and as an administrator at Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia before retirement. In March 2011, Feret was one of 21 priests suspended from ministry by the archdiocese due to credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. In September 2012, Andrew Druding filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese. He stated that Feret sexually abused him during the early 1970s when he was a nine-year-old choir member at St. Timothy Parish in Mayfair.
Monsignor John E. Gillespie
In 1994, two brothers confronted Gillespie and accused him of sexually abusing them at Immaculate Conception Parish in Levittown during the 1950s. Gillespie forwarded their accusations to Monsignor Lynn, denying that the abuse happened. There was no investigation. In 1997, a mother complained to the archdiocese about Gillespie asking her son sexual questions during confession. Lynn refused to investigate the allegations. In 2000, after a man stated that Gillespie fondled him as a teenager during the 1970s, the archdiocese removed Gillespie from his assignment at Our Lady of Calvary Church in Philadelphia.
In March 2011, the archdiocese was sued by Philip Gaughan, who said he was sexually abused by Gillespie when he was pastor of Our Lady. The alleged abuse happened 1994 and 1997, when Gaughan was a teenage sacristan at the church. Gillespie died in 2008. After Gaughan filed his lawsuit, other alleged victims of Gillespie contacted him. The archdiocese said that Gaughan's lawsuit should be dismissed because it was past the Pennsylvania statute of limitations. In 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the lower court ruling that the case should be dismissed. The cutoff date for his lawsuit would have been 2000.
Reverends John P. Schmeer and Francis X. Trauger
McDonnell said that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was abused by John P. Schmeer and the now-laicized Francis X. Trauger of St. Titus parish and school near Norristown. The eight earlier lawsuits involved different victims. Attorneys included Marci Hamilton, a legal advocate and expert on child sexual abuse; Malvern lawyer Daniel F. Monahan; and Jeffrey R. Anderson, a veteran litigator involving church sex-abuse cases, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Trauger was arrested on September 3, 2019.
Reverend Robert L Brennan
In June 1988, Brennan was named pastor of Saint Ignatius Parish in Yardley. Almost immediately Monsignor John C. Marine, then assistant pastor there, noticed Brennan kissing and hugging the boys; he also heard from other staff that some boys were spending the night with him. Brennan notified the diocese, but its officials, including Lynn. After a complaint from the mother of one boy, the archdiocese sent Brennan for an psychological evaluation in November 1988. Bevilacqua offered the boy's parents to pay for his counseling.
After several months of treatment, Bevilacqua appointed Brennan as parochial administrator, then pastor, of St. Mary's Parish in Schwenksville. The new parish was not told about Brennan's background. In March 1991, seven fifth graders complained to their principal at the parish school about Brennan. The principal made a report that eventually reached Bevilacqua, who did nothing. In July 1992, after more complaints from school officials and parents, the archdiocese sent Brennan away again for evaluation. Lynn in November 1993 recommended that Brennan be assigned as assistant pastor at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in Philadelphia. However, his therapists warned against him receiving a new pastoral position.
Brennan remained at Resurrection for the next ten years, repeating all of his previous behaviors. The pastor of the parish refused to hear any complaints about him until 1996. when he finally met with Lynn. In 2004, Brennan was transferred to serve as chaplain at Camilla Hall, a retirement home for religious sisters in Malvern.
In 2013, a lawsuit was filed by the parents of Sean McIlmail, who had said that . Brennan, molested him between 1998 and 2001, starting when he was 11, while Brennan served at Resurrection of Our Lord. Criminal charges which were filed against Brennan prior to the lawsuit were dropped after McIlmail committed suicide in 2013 at the age of 26. On June 25, 2018, it was announced that the Philadelphia Archdiocese agreed to settle the lawsuit. The exact sum of the lawsuit's settlement remained undisclosed, but nevertheless was reported to be the largest sex abuse settlement in the history of the archdiocese. On September 5, 2019, Brennan was arrested at his home in Maryland after being indicted on four counts of lying to the FBI about molesting McIlmail.
Reverend John McDevitt
In 2009, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, a religious order for men, was sued in Delaware for sexual abuse. The plaintiff was Richard Green, who claimed that he was sexually abused by Reverend John M. McDevitt, an Oblates priest who was teaching religion at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia. The abuse took place between 1990 and 1991 when Green was 14-years-old. McDevitt died in 1999. McDevitt threatened to fail Green if he did not accede to his sexual advances. The abuse happened during tutoring sessions, with Green being subjected to anal penetration, oral sex and other forms of abuse.
It was reported at that time that the Oblates Order was also being sued by men who had been abused as teenagers by McDevitt at the Salesianum School in Wilmington, Delaware. There was also a report from the Diocese of Harrisburg of McDevitt kissing a boy there. The Oblates in 2011 announced a $24.8 million financial settlement with victims of sexual abuse by their priests. This settlement included Richard Green.
Sexual abuse convictions
The following priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia were convicted in American courts of sexual abuse crimes against minors. Bernard Shero, the only non-priest on this list, was a teacher employed by the archdiocese.
Reverend Edward Avery
In 1995, Avery was reported to the archdiocese for improper behavior with young boys. He was wrestling, tickling and sleeping with them. The archdiocese sent him away for treatment. After his discharge, the archdiocese was supposed to keep him away from children. However, Cardinal Bevilacqua assigned him to St. Jerome's Parish in Philadelphia. While at St. Jerome, Reverend Charles Engelhardt in 1999 introduced him to Billy Doe, as he became known in court papers. Billy was a 10-year-old boy at the parish school whom Engelhardt had been sexually assaulting for the past year. Avery would engage in oral intercourse with Billy on several occasions.
The archdiocese in December 2003 permanently removed Avery from ministry. The Vatican laicized him in 2006. In February 2011, Avery was charged with rape, indecent sexual assault and other criminal charges. Before the start of his trial, Avery pleaded guilty in March 2012 to conspiracy and sexually assault; he was sentenced to two and a half to five years in state prison.Avery in January 2013 recanted his confession, claiming that he never abused Billy.
Reverend James J. Behan
Behan in 2002 was pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, when Martin Donohoe accused him of sexual abuse in Philadelphia. The Diocese of Charlotte immediately suspended Behan from public ministry. Donahoe said that Behan entered into a sexual relationship with him when he was 14-year-old boy at North Catholic High School in Philadelphia. Donahoe reported ending the relationship in 1981.
Behan was indicted in Philadelphia in April 2004 on charges of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and indecent assault.He pleaded guilty in February 2005 to sexually abusing Donahoe.In a decision that stunned many observers due to its leniency, the judge sentenced Behan in December 2005 to 12 years of probation.
Reverend Richard J. Cochrane
In August 1999, Cochrane, a teacher at Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, was charged with sexual assault. The victim, then a student at Malvern, said that Cochrane sexually assaulted him in June 1991 at a house in Tobyhanna. Cochrane showed a pornographic film to the victim, gave him beer, fondled him and then performed a sexual act on him. A second victim made similar accusations against Cochrane, but the case was too old to prosecuteCochrane in January 2003 pleaded no contest to sexual assault.He was sentenced in July 2003 to one and a half to two years in state prison.
Reverend Edward M. DePaoli
In 1985, U.S. Postal Inspectors searched DePaoli's room at the rectory of Holy Martyrs Parish in Oreland. They discovered 111 magazines, 14 8mm films, and 11 videotapes of child pornography. He was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography and received a one-year suspended sentence. The archdiocese sent him to St. John Vianney Hospital in Downington, where he remained for two years. After his discharge, the archdiocese returned him first to a parish in New Jersey, then to parish work in Philadelphia.
In 2002, a woman complained to the archdiocese that DePaoli had sexually molested her in 1970 when she was 14-years-old. At that point, the archdiocese removed him from ministry permanently. DePaoli was laicized by the Vatican in 2004.
Reverend Charles Engelhardt
Engelhardt, a pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Philadelphia, was arrested in February 2011 on charges of orally sodomizing and molesting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1998, referred to as "Billy Doe" in court documents. Engelhardt gave Billy wine, showed him pornographic films, then assaulted him. Engelhardt later told Reverend Edward Avery about Billy, who then proceeded to abuse him also. In 2009, Billy reported his abuse to two social workers from the archdiocese. In June 2013 trial, Engelhardt was convicted of rape. He was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison and five years of probation. Engelhardt died in November 2014 while in prison
Reverend Armand Garcia
On March 5, 2019, Garcia, pastor of Saint Martin of Tours Parish in Oxford Circle, was arrested and charged with rape and sexual abuse. The victim was a 16-year-old girl in 2014, a parishioner at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Roxborough. Garcia filmed the girl during the crime. In October 2023, Garcia pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and unlawful contact with minors as part of a plea agreement. He was to be sentenced in January 2024.
Reverend Mark J. Haynes
In October 2014 Haynes, a priest at Saints Simon & Jude Parish in Westtown, was arrested on charges of possessing and disseminating child pornography. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had alerted police to the parish Instagram account. The site showed two nude pictures of a girl under age 14. They later discovered other pornographic photos and that he was actively catfishing with a minor girl. In June 2015, Haynes pleaded guilty to solicitation and child pornography charges. He was sentenced in February 2016 to 20 years in state prison.
Reverend Robert J. Hermley
Hermley was first arrested in Wilmington, Delaware in 1982 when police discovered him in a parked car with two young teenage boys watching pornographic films. After his conviction, the court sentenced him to three years of probation. After a mental health examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors cleared him for service. A member of the Oblates Order, they assigned Hermley next to a parish in Vienna, Virginia. The Oblates received a sexual abuse complaint against him in 1987 from his assignment at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, during the 1970s.
In 2003, a man contacted the archdiocese to allege that Hermley sexually abused him at Father Judge High School in Philadelphia during the 1970s. In 2011, Hermley's victims were included in the $23.6 million financial settlement by the Oblates for sexual abuse lawsuits.
Reverend Matthew J. Kornacki
Secret Service agents in 2003 searched Kornacki's quarters at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, where they found over 150 child pornography images on his laptop. At that time, he was serving as assistant director for priest formation and a spiritual director at St. Charles. In August 2004, he pleaded guilty without a plea agreement to possessing child pornography in federal court.Kornacki was sentenced in November 2004 to 30 months in federal prison.
Reverend Nilo C. Martins
Martins was a Brazilian pediatrician who was also a priest in the Society of the Divine Word, a religious order. His order in 1984 had assigned him as an assistant pastor at Incarnation of Our Lord Parish in North Philadelphia. In February 1985, Martins invited "Daniel", a 15-year-old altar boy, up to his room in the rectory to watch television, where he raped him. Immediately after the attack, Daniel ran into Reverend Peter Welsh in the church and told him what happened. Welch went upstairs to take Martins' confession, but did nothing else.
A few days later, Daniel told his story to a math teacher, who relayed it to the head of the school, Reverend John Shelley. Daniel also told his parents. When Daniel went to mass on Sunday, Shelley told him that he could not longer be an altar boy. His schoolmates found out about the incident and hazed him mercilessly.Martins was arrested and convicted of sexual assault in February 1985. He was sentenced in July 1985 to 23 to 46 months in prison. However, after only five weeks, the US Immigration Service deported Martins to Brazil.
Reverend William McCandless
On December 3, 2020, Reverend William McCandless, a member of the Oblates de St. Francis De Sales, was arrested in Philadelphia for possession of child pornography. He had been serving on the faculty of DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. At the time of his arrest, McCandless had accumulated over 3,000 pornographic web pages, most them during his time in Monaco while serving as an advisor to the House of Grimaldi. Some of these images reportedly showed the sexual torture of children. In May 2022, McCandless pleaded guilty to access and attempted access with intent to view child pornography. He was sentenced in January 2023 to 37 months’ imprisonment followed by 15 years of supervised release.
Bernard Shero
Shero, a teacher at the parish school at St. Joseph's parish, was arrested in February 2011 on sexual abuse charges against "Billy Doe", then a 10-year-old student, starting in 2000. Tried along with Charles Engelhardt in June 2013, Shero was convicted of rape, attempted rape, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and indecent sexual assault. He was sentenced to eight to 16 years in prison and five years of probation.
In August 2017, a judge dismissed Shero's conviction, due to questions about the truthfulness of Billy Doe. In a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid a new trial, Shero pleaded no contest to child rape and was sentenced to time served, which was approximately four years in prison.
Reverend Michael Swierzy
The parents of a fifth-grade boy contacted the archdiocese in April 1997, claiming that Swierzy was giving their son beer, kissing him and sleeping with him. Swierzy was the principal of Cardinal Dougherty High School in Philadelphia. During the investigation, police found pictures of young men in underwear in Swierzy's residence. He pleaded guilty in January 1998 to once count of corruption of the morals of a minor and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Reverend Francis Trauger
On September 3, 2019, Trauger was arrested and charged with sexually abusing two altar boys while serving at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Tullytown between 1993 and 2003. He would fondle the boys during the robing process before mass. Trauger was laicized by the Vatican in 2003. In July 2020, Trauger pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault of a minor. He was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in prison, with seven months probation.
References
External links
- Grand Jury Report on the Sexual Abuse of Minors by Clergy, by Gwendolyn N. Bright, Supervising Judge re: Misc. No. 03-00-239, Court of Common Pleas, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Criminal Trial Division; Office of the District Attorney of the City of Philadelphia, 2011 — PDF version via A.W. Richard Sipe, 2013.
