Central Pa. Diocese Investigating Dead Friar

San Francisco Chronicle
April 16, 2013

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Central-Pa-diocese-investigating-dead-friar-4438043.php

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in central Pennsylvania says it is investigating claims that a Franciscan friar who committed suicide in January molested Catholic high school students when he helped at the school from 1992 to 2001.

More than 50 former students at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown have hired attorneys and say they intend to sue church and school officials they believe are responsible for their alleged abuse by Brother Stephen Baker.

Baker committed suicide Jan. 26 at a monastery in Newry more than a week after the Youngstown, Ohio diocese disclosed financial settlements involving 11 students who claimed Baker abused them at a northeastern Ohio school in the late 1980s.

Since then, dozens of former students at McCort, and other schools in Ohio and Michigan have since come forward with abuse claims.