BishopAccountability.org
	Abusive Former Priest Released from Prison By Dana Clark Felty Savannah Morning News April 23, 2008 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/ Former Savannah priest Wayland Y. Brown was released from a Maryland prison Wednesday after serving five years on a child sexual-abuse conviction. Brown, 64, has reported to a parole officer in Maryland and will live in the Baltimore area, said Mark Vernarelli, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Brown will be required to register as a child sex offender on the Maryland sex offender registry. Leaders for SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called attention to Brown's release through a media alert issued Wednesday morning. "Wayland Brown was a serial abuser, and we fear he will continue to perpetrate his crimes upon his release," regional coordinator Ann Brentwood said in the press release. "We want to alert all parents and law enforcement agents to be aware of the potential threat of this predator being released back into society." Brown pleaded guilty in a Maryland court in November 2002 to charges of child abuse and battery for performing sexual acts on a teenage boy and his younger brother in Maryland between 1974 and 1977. A native of Rome, Ga., Brown was ordained in the Diocese of Savannah in July 1977. He ministered in several parishes in Georgia and Maryland. In 1987 and 1988, he served as associate pastor at St. James Parish in Savannah. Brown's conviction stems from abuse that occurred while he was studying to be a priest in Maryland. Brown has not been charged with sexual abuse in the Savannah area, but at least one man has claimed he was molested by a former St. James priest. In 2007, former parishioner Allan C. Ranta II said he had filed charges against a former Savannah priest but declined to say where the charges were filed. Brown was sentenced to 10 years in prison in early 2003. Because of credits he earned for good behavior, his release date was moved up, Vernarelli said. Brentwood said local sex-abuse victims are "outraged" over Brown's release and concerned he may eventually return to Savannah, where he was arrested in 2002. Sex offenders are required to notify officials when they move, but many fail to do so in a timely manner, Brentwood said. "If he comes back and we lose him, that's my big concern," she said. "And that's why I want to call as much attention to this as I can, so he doesn't get away from us and end up in Savannah or Florida or anywhere else where he can harm children." The Catholic Diocese of Savannah learned "informally" of Brown's release, spokeswoman Barbara D. King said Wednesday. "The Diocese of Savannah has not heard anything from him. We do not know anything about where he will go after his release," King said. According to published reports, the Savannah diocese's vocations director, who handled personnel issues, recommended in a 1977 letter that Brown not be ordained because of concerns that he might be abusing children. He was later ordained into the priesthood by then Bishop Raymond W. Lessard. Other published reports stated that in 1985 and 1986, Brown spent nine months at the St. Luke Institute, a Silver Springs, Md., psychiatric hospital for priests. He began serving the following year as an associate pastor at St. James Parish in Savannah. In July 1988, Lessard removed Brown from active ministry for unreported reasons. An "inactive priest" loses the title of "Father" and cannot wear priestly garb or present themselves publicly as a priest, according to Catholic doctrine. In 1993, however, Brown identified himself as "The Rev. Wayland Y. Brown" in a letter to the editor in the New York Times about an athlete receiving a university scholarship despite being a convicted drug dealer. Brown's status as a priest wasn't officially removed until 2004, when he was "laicized" through a decree from the Vatican. Laicized priests are usually barred from priestly ministry, released from priestly vows and obligations such as celibacy, and restricted from holding certain jobs or leadership positions in the church. Advocates for childhood sexual abuse are urging victims to come forward. "The victims of Wayland Brown are outraged," Brentwood said in Wednesday's statement. "And we implore any and all victims who have yet to come forward to please contact law enforcement, and, if we can be of assistance, to contact us at SNAP."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.