By Michael Pound
Beaver County Times
October 5, 2011
www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/zubik-denies-accusation-of-former-quigley-student/article_ba7e1123-5785-5c72-bd4a-96fc6e5d96a8.html
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| St. Titus Catholic Church in Aliquippa celebrated 100 years with a centennial mass celebrated by Bishop David A. Zubik in May. Zubik has been accused of having inappropriate contact with a student at Quigley Catholic High School in the mid-1980s, a claim he denied on Wednesday. |
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik said he believes the accusations leveled against him by a former Quigley Catholic High School student were retaliation for the denial of an application to serve as a lay minister at the man's current church.
In an interview with The Times Wednesday afternoon, Zubik, a native of Economy who served as a vice principal at Quigley in the 1980s, categorically denied the accusations.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Zubik quoted from his accuser's allegations: "He was the most violent with me. He forced me up against a wall in the Chapel and tried to tongue kiss me."
Zubik's reaction? "I emphatically state that no such behavior ever occurred, nor any semblance of such behavior."
The accuser, a current Beaver County resident who identifies himself as Michael on a blog where he outlines his story, did not respond to several attempts to contact him.
Zubik said the man initially spoke with his pastor about incidents with two other priests -- both now defrocked, Zubik said -- and later agreed to meet with Zubik to discuss those incidents.
"When we met, though, he didn't appear to be concerned about those incidents as much as he was interested in serving in his parish," Zubik said. "We were aware that there were some red flags that could come up in the background checks for that position, and he asked me, as the bishop and as a former teacher, if I could override those. I said I could not."
A diocese review board turned down the accuser's application in early August; the man responded days later, Zubik said, with emails to his pastor about "taking down someone big in the church" and, later, in public posts on Quigley's Facebook page and on his blog, titled "Molested by Bishop Zubik."
"We were aware this was going on, and I debated the merits of going public, because there were no legal charges or no civil actions," Zubik said. "But when the blog showed up on Sunday, I thought 'That's it. We're going forward with this.' "
Zubik said the decision to go public was driven by a desire to protect the church and the priesthood from false accusations.
"I was aware that my reputation would be tarnished here, but I mostly wanted to stand up for the church and my fellow priests," he said. "We take allegations from anyone very seriously, but at the same time we cannot let ourselves become targets to those who would make false claims."
Zubik said information about the man's allegations has been given both to officials at the Vatican and Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh, who will discuss the charges this afternoon.
Contact: mpound@timesonline.com
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