ST. LOUIS (MO0
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BY TIM TOWNSEND AND ROBERT PATRICK
Post-Dispatch
Friday, May. 06 2005
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has written a letter to three churches
warning that one of their former pastors, the Rev. James Beine, will soon be
released from prison - and asking anyone who might be able to put him back
behind bars to come forward.
The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Beine's conviction on charges of exposing himself to three students at a St. Louis grade school, where he worked as a counselor, in the 2000-2001 school year. The court held that the law was unconstitutionally broad.
On Friday, the high court ordered Beine's release; authorities said it could
happen by Tuesday.
Burke asked the pastors of St. Peter in St. Charles, St. Andrew in Lemay and
St. Francis de Sales in St. Louis to read his letter at all Masses next
weekend. Beine served in the three parishes between his ordination in 1967 and
his removal from ministry in 1977.
The letter will be printed in next week's archdiocesan newspaper, the St. Louis
Review, and Web site, according to spokesman Jamie Allman. It is the first time
Burke, as the leader of the St. Louis archdiocese, has taken such public action
against a priest.