BishopAccountability.org
	Vatican Defrocks Priest Who Brought Boys to Sea Isle Home By Brian Ianieri Press of Atlantic City February 16, 2008 http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/181/story/83110.html The Vatican said recently that it defrocked a Philadelphia priest who was cited in a grand jury report for getting boys drunk at his beach home and then molesting them. David C. Sicoli, 60, still owns a condominium in Sea Isle City across from a playground on Central Avenue. He was among dozens of priests at the center of a Philadelphia grand jury report in 2005 detailing allegations of decades of child abuse by clergy. An internal investigation by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia found the allegations against Sicoli were true, according to a statement. But Sicoli has not been charged with any crime. The allegations, which were made throughout Sicoli's nearly 30-year career, surpassed Pennsylvania's statute of limitations, Assistant District Attorney Charles Gallagher said. "If they would have told law enforcement when they heard about it, then he could have been prosecuted," Gallagher said Friday. A Philadelphia grand jury report in 2005 painted a disturbing picture of Sicoli, who is portrayed as manipulative, short-tempered and immature, once firing a boy for backing out of a trip to Disney World. Four witnesses testified that Sicoli abused them as teenagers when he was assigned to Immaculate Conception parish in Levittown, Pa., in the 1980s. But the report indicated the abuse was more widespread. The report says he gravitated toward certain boys, taking some on trips to a Tijuana bar, Disney World and Africa. One boy, given an alias of "Frederick," told the grand jury he was at first delighted by the attention and outings with Sicoli - to swim at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, to watch movies and to take trips to his house in Sea Isle City. As one of 10 children, 13-year-old Frederick rarely went anywhere with his parents. Sicoli took him and other boys to the Red Garter bar in North Wildwood, supplied them with alcohol and let them drive home drunk, he testified. What became routine on the ride home, Frederick told the jury, was when the priest pretended to be sick, asked the boy to rub his stomach and, inevitably, lower. Frederick often went to sleep drunk at the house, he told the jury, and awoke to find the priest performing oral sex on or fondling him. He testified that the abuse continued from seventh grade into high school. Another boy, "Hugh," told the grand jury he caught the priest's attention in sixth grade, when he broke a rectory window playing ball and rang the bell to confess. He was given a paying job in the rectory and the best altar boy jobs - weddings and funerals because of the tips - and invitations to the shore house. One day, while doing his homework in the rectory, the priest asked him to wrestle and was really into it, he testified. Sicoli was removed from ministry in 2004, and, at his own request, the Holy See defrocked - or laicized - him, said Donna Farrell, director of communications for the archdiocese. Property records indicate Sicoli owns a condominium in the 5900 block of Central Avenue in Sea Isle City, which is across the street from Play-By-The-Bay, a complex of playgrounds, tennis courts and baseball fields. It was unclear whether he lives there year round. No one answered the door Friday afternoon, and there is no listed phone number. Sicoli denied the allegations to the Archdiocese Review Board. However, he declined to answer the allegations against him before the grand jury. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia asks people who were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and need assistance to call 888-800-8780. To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.