PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips
Inquirer Staff Writer
In the latest fallout from the long-running clergy sex scandal, the Catholic Church has taken the rare step of defrocking two priests who once served the Philadelphia Archdiocese and permanently barring a retired Center City pastor from ministry.
The retired pastor, Msgr. Philip J. Dowling, had been suspended in March after admitting to The Inquirer that he had "crossed the bound" by repeatedly fondling a teenage girl decades ago.
One of the defrocked priests, the Rev. Edward M. DePaoli, 60, had been convicted of child-pornography charges in 1986 but had been allowed to remain in limited ministry until 2002. The other, the Rev. Martin J. Satchell, was quietly dismissed from ministry in 1993 but did not surface in public accounts of the scandal until yesterday.
Even as they announced the actions yesterday, church officials declined to say what Satchell, 39, had done to warrant defrocking - except that he had been the subject of "a credible accusation of misconduct involving a minor."
The news was announced yesterday on Page 10 of the Catholic Standard and Times, the archdiocese's weekly newspaper. None of the three priests could be reached for comment yesterday.
Posted by kshaw at June 3, 2005 07:23 AM