Nordonia Hills Child Porn Sentencing Opens Old Wounds in Catholic St. Barnabas Community
By John Harper
NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- The sentencing of a former teacher and school board president on 15 child porn charges has opened old wounds for parents and former students at St. Barnabas School and church in Northfield Center. Decades of child abuse at St. Barnabas and other catholic schools came to light 13 years ago when the Rev. Daniel McBride, the only priest indicted in a sweeping grand-jury investigation of sex-abuse complaints in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese. McBride was sentenced to three years' probation for having sex with a teen prostitute last year The diocese issued a statement saying McBride's case was "a personal matter and was never connected with the exercise of his priestly ministry." Now the Rev. Ralph Wiatrowsky of St. Barnabas has asked a judge to reconsider sentencing former Nordonia Hills school board President Steve Bittel to prison after 67 child porn files were found on his computer. And the letter has some parents outraged. Angela Mitchell was a student at St. Barnabas in the 1980s, and while she was never a victim of sexual abuse, she says she knows others who were. She is one of 1,600 local parents who have joined a private Facebook group to coordinate efforts asking the Diocese of Cleveland to reconsider Wiatrowsky's job. "We're the generation that had to go through it, and now we're parents," said Mitchell, who is also asking for current school board President Jim Virost to resign, for writing a character letter. "And now we have the power to speak up." Wiatrowski's two-page letter was one of 27 submitted as part of a character profile of Steve Bittel, who was sentenced in April to 14 years in prison. Scroll down to see the letters. In his letter to Judge Richard Reinbold, Wiatrowski wrote that he didn't believe incarcerating Bittel would serve any good purpose. "Steve is a good man, though admittedly he has some flaws," Wiatrowski wrote. "In his case, I think his lesson has been well learned and incarceration is not warranted." Another St. Barnabas parent, Michelle Musitano, says Wiatrowski's letter smacks of the type of tolerance that allowed sex abuse to go unnoticed inside the diocese for decades. "When I saw he had written a a letter on St. Barnabas letterhead asking for leniency, I said, 'Oh my God this is not where I want my daughter to be," Musitano said. "I don't want my Father supporting a man who was a pedophile involved in our school, around our children." When complaints began pouring into the church following the April sentencing, Wiatrowski wrote a letter explaining his decision to ask for leniency in the Bittel case. "I stated the facts of Mr. Bittel's involvement in parish life and asked that the Judge consider this in the sentencing decision," Wiatrowski wrote. "In no way did I condone the base charges or offenses for which Mr. Bittel had been convicted. I regret deeply any interpretation that I would condone such behavior and I am sorry for the confusion." Mitchell's group started a petition on Change.org asking the Diocese of Cleveland to "Evaluate Fr. Ralph (Wiatrowski) as the best person to lead our parish and school and protect our children." The diocese made this statement Friday: The Diocese was not aware of an online petition until cleveland.com brought it to our attention. We believe it would be helpful for those involved to read Father Wiatrowski's letter of May 5th to the parents and families of the parish where he explains his letter-to-the-court and assures the parish that the safety of children is of the highest priority.
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