PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Msgr. Samuel E. Shoemaker
Now pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch in Yardley, the parish where Statkus resides.
Shoemaker, chancellor for Cardinals Krol and Bevilacqua, is shown to have raised occasional concerns that the church was not acting forcefully enough against abusers. At the same time, in 1984 he appointed a known abuser, the Rev. David Sicoli, as associate director of the CCD youth program for the entire Philadelphia area - even though, the grand jury says, "the priest's file clearly showed that he used the Church's youth groups to reward, groom and manipulate his targeted boys."
The grand jury also noted that Krol and Shoemaker tried to persuade the Rev. Edward DePaoli to plead guilty to child-porn charges to avoid "scandal and publicity." DePaoli refused and said the church was mainly worried that "other things might come out at trial." In a later letter to DePaoli, the grand jury said, Shoemaker acknowledged that "it has not been unknown for Federal Authorities to seek other information from an indicted person which may assist them in prosecuting other cases." DePaoli was convicted in 1986 of receiving child pornography through the mail.