The Franciscan affair: Who knew? When?

Tribune-Review
April 30, 2016

http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/10385242-74/baker-appointments-franciscan

Three Franciscan friars will have the opportunity to defend their judgment as it pertained to the reprehensible appointments of a peer who is accused of molesting more than 100 children, primarily at a Johnstown Catholic high school.

A district judge last week ordered the trio to stand trial on charges of child endangerment and conspiracy.

Among his various appointments, Brother Stephen Baker was named “vocations director” — which put him in contact with teenagers — after he was removed from Bishop McCort Catholic High School in 2000, The Associated Press reported. His removal was based on a “credible” sexual-abuse allegation dating back 20 years.

More than 90 former high-schoolers settled lawsuits totaling more than $8 million, which claimed the Rev. Baker molested them. And that occurred after 11 students from a high school in Ohio settled similar claims against Baker, who committed suicide.

Baker's superiors, the Revs. Giles Schinelli, Robert D'Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli, stand accused of playing a despicable shell game with a suspected sexual predator. As Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye put it, “If there was a concern that he had an issue with alcohol, would they have assigned him to a bar?”

Exactly what did Baker's superiors know? How did that influence their decisions on his appointments? The answers, for Baker's many victims, are long overdue.