Catholic Priest Removed from Warwick Church after Admitting He Fathered a Child

By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record
January 18, 2012

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WARWICK — A Catholic priest has lost his spot in a Warwick church after archdiocesan officials learned he had fathered a child.

Bishop Dominick Lagonegro told parishioners at St. Stephen The First Martyr that Father Casmir Mung'aho never told the archdiocese about the child even as he completed his training in seminary and became a priest. Lagonegro delivered the message to church members in person.

He originally said Mung'aho's child was born before he entered the seminary following a "consensual relationship with an adult woman." Lagonegro later issued a follow-up statement saying he'd learned the child was actually born during Mung'aho's first year at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.

Joseph Zwillig, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, said the problem for the church lies both in Mung'aho's failure to tell officials about the child and the fact that he fathered the child after entering the seminary. Priests and seminarians are forbidden to engage in sexual relationships under the church's rules.

Zwillig said Mung'aho's future is uncertain. For now, the archdiocese has asked him to take some time to think about his responsibilities. Officials will then decide what to do next.

In May 2011, Mung'aho was the subject of a profile in Catholic New York, a newspaper that reports on Catholic issues. He told the paper he had wanted to be a priest since he was a boy growing up in the East African country of Tanzania. Priests were revered in Tanzania, he said, but it was more difficult in the United States.

"Here, there are more challenges to the priesthood with all there is out there," Mung'aho said. "I see myself here being a model. It's being an example every day."

Mung'aho was ordained in May, 2011. A post on a blog for St. Stephen's recently announced the archdiocese had assigned a new priest to begin on Jan. 25 at the church.