DAYTON (OH)
Middletown Journal
DAYTON — The Rev. David Kelley was assigned to a Vandalia parish in 1984 after the Cincinnati archdiocese learned of allegations that he had fondled at least two male students of Cincinnati’s Elder High School during parties in Kelley’s private room at a rectory, according to papers filed in court Tuesday.
Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk told a rehabilitation center for sexually abusive priests of Kelley’s history after the archdiocese sent him there for treatment in late 1986, the court papers show.
“Fearing the real possibility of widespread scandal and possible further harm to students, as well as the reputation of the school, (Kelley) was told that he would have to leave the faculty and the parish,” Pilarczyk wrote to the Servants of the Paraclete center in Jemez Springs, N.M. “He was then assigned to St. Christopher parish, near Dayton, Ohio, as associate pastor.”
Konrad Kircher, a Mason attorney representing dozens of purported victims of child sexual abuse by priests, said Pilarczyk’s letter and other correspondence he filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court show the Cincinnati Archdiocese used “fraudulent concealment” to cover up for abusive priests. Kircher argues that the cover-up means the statute of limitations shouldn’t be up on decades-old abuse allegations.
Posted by kshaw at January 20, 2005 06:37 AM