COLORADO
The Denver Post
By Kirk Mitchell
Denver Post Staff Writer
Facing accusations that he tied up and blindfolded an altar boy for sexual purposes in the early 1970s, a former Catholic priest in Pueblo committed suicide Wednesday.
Andrew A. Burke, 62, who had been the social-work director at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, shot himself in the chest in his backyard with a .38-caliber handgun that still had the price tag attached, said Deputy Chief John Ercul of the Pueblo Police Department.
Police found Burke's body about 8 a.m. in his backyard after his wife found a suicide note and called police, Ercul said.
Contacted by The Denver Post on Tuesday afternoon, Burke, who had been a priest in the early 1970s at St. Pius X in Pueblo, left a phone message with the newspaper hours before his death.
"I know I failed as a priest. I failed (the altar boy) and his family, and I certainly failed the church, and for that I am deeply sorry," Burke said in the message.