ST. LOUIS (MO)
Duluth News Tribune
BY JIM SALTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS - A priest's admission that he received child pornography while living at a home for troubled priests near St. Louis has raised concern about oversight at that site and a similar one nearby.
David Malsch, 66, a convicted sex offender from Superior, was living at the Wounded Brothers RECON facility in Franklin County, Mo., in October 2003 when federal agents searched his room and found 28 photos of child porn.
Malsch pleaded guilty Monday and faces at least five years in prison when sentenced June 10.
Allegations of inappropriate behavior with a child against Malsch date to the early 1980s, when he was serving St. Patrick Church in Superior. In 2002, Superior Bishop Raphael Fliss apologized publicly for the diocese's failure to more thoroughly investigate Malsch.
RECON officials did not return telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment. Director Mark Matousek has described it as a halfway house mainly for those who have exhausted treatment options.
Both St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests questioned how a cleric with a history of sexual misconduct could be allowed to get child porn by mail. Just two weeks ago, archdiocese spokesman Jamie Allman said, Burke met with RECON officials to express concern over security and monitoring.
Posted by kshaw at March 2, 2005 03:41 AM