ARIZONA
ascentral.com
Associated Press
Apr. 4, 2005 12:00 AM
A former top official in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese has resigned amid allegations of sexual improprieties, according to a letter given to parishioners at an evening Mass on Saturday.
In his letter, Monsignor Dale Fushek, pastor of St. Timothy Catholic Church in Mesa and co-founder of a youth group, denied the allegations but said he resigned to protect parishioners from the "ordeal."
He said his resignation would be effective June 30. advertisement
Fushek was placed on leave after an attorney notified the diocese that a client claimed to have recovered a repressed memory involving sexual improprieties by Fushek in 1985.
A lawsuit in January named Fushek and Phil Baniewicz, president of Life Teen Inc. Former priest Mark Lehman, resigned Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the Diocese of Phoenix and St. Timothy's in Mesa also were named in the suit.