Catholic church reveals names of SC priests credibly accused of child sex abuse

By John Monk, Bristow Marchant, And Maayan Schechter
State
March 29, 2019

https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article228606499.html

The names of 42 Catholic priests with South Carolina ties and who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse or misconduct with children were made public late Friday afternoon by Diocese of Charleston, which oversees all Catholic churches in South Carolina.

Thirty-one of the 42 alleged child sex predator priests have died, the church said in a Friday afternoon news release. No one on the list is currently a priest.

The list included only priests who had credible, or believable, accusations against them, the church said.

Although the church listed the names of accused abusive priests, in most cases, it did not reveal cases the specific S.C. churches or schools the offenders were associated with.

Nor did the church provide an estimate of the number of victims the priests had abused. Child sex abuse experts say the number of children a molester victimizes before he is caught can run into the hundreds.

The allegations covered on the list date as far back as 1950.

“It is my fervent hope and prayer that publishing this list will help bring healing to the victims and their families who have been so grievously harmed by the betrayal of priests and Church leadership,” wrote the Most Rev. Robert Guglielmone, Bishop of Charleston in announcing the list.

Guglielmone asked anyone with a sexual misconduct allegation to contact local law enforcement in the area where the abuse occurred.

“The church should always be a safe environment — not only a place where no one will be abused going forward, but also a place where those who have been abused in the past can find understanding, healing and hope,” he said.

There are approximately 200,000 Catholics in South Carolina. Many attend the state’s 34 Catholic schools and 116 Catholic churches.

The list contains four categories of priests: S.C. priests with a credible allegation against them in South Carolina, visiting priests who allegedly molested at least one child in the state, S.C. priests who allegedly abused children outside of South Carolina, and priests who were accused of abuse in class action lawsuits.

The list did not include the names of three priests who are the subject of pending civil lawsuits, the name of one priest who is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and two priests whose behavior is undergoing review by an independent sexual abuse advisory board.

For decades, the Catholic church in the U.S. and other countries has been under fire for widespread child abuse by priests, none of whom are permitted to marry. Last year, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a report saying more than 300 “predator priests” had been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children in six dioceses in that state since 1947.

Only in recent years has the church has begun to take serious steps to address the problem, although critics say it must do more. The publishing of the names of alleged child abusers, as the S.C. church did Friday, is one such step the church is taking to make itself more transparent and accountable.

Just this week, Pope Francis issued a law in Vatican City requiring officials of the city-state to immediately report instances of abuse to Vatican prosecutors, the New York Times reported.

Along with the actual abusers, other high-ranking Catholic church clergy across the nation have been accused of covering up priests’ crimes against children. Meanwhile church dioceses, or governing bodies, have paid out tens of millions of dollars to Catholic victim-survivors across the country, many of whom have grown into adulthood bearing serious emotional and psychological wounds.

The Catholic church is not alone in allegations of child abuse by those who work with youth. In a recent investigation, the Houston Chronicle found that over a 20-year period, hundreds of pastors and other leaders at numerous Southern Baptist churches abused some 700 victims.

Among the names of alleged Catholic child abuser clergy:

▪ Msgr. Roy Aiken, of Columbia, former editor of the Catholic Banner, the Catholic newspaper of South Carolina. Before dying in 2006 at the age of 87, Aiken taught at Ursuline and Cardinal Newman high schools in Columbia, as well as St. Angela Academy in Aiken. He was also a priest at St. Peter Church in Columbia and St. John Church in Summerville.

▪ John Simonin, of Mt. Pleasant, who died in 2010 at the age of 88. He was a priest at St. Peter’s in Beaufort, St. Anthony’s in Ridgeland and St. Mary of the Annunciation in Charleston.

▪ William Burn, of Charleston, who died in 2009 at the age of 87. His obituary says he pastored at “various Catholic parishes throughout South Carolina” as an assistant and a pastor.

A priest not on the list was the Rev. Javier Heredia, who worked at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Columbia from mid-2014 to the end of 2016. He was placed on leave last year by the bishop and faces criminal charges of improperly touching a girl at a public wave pool. Heredia has denied the allegations.

The list can be found at www.sccatholic.org/child-and-youth-protection/list/.

The names of the priests are Roy Aiken (died 2006), John Bench Jr. (died 2009), Peter Berberich (died 1997) William Burn (died 2009), Eugene Condon (died 2014), Basil Congro (whereabouts unknown, not allowed to be a priest), Raymond DuMouchel (died 2006), Thomas Evatt (died 2003), Justin Goodwin (died 1995), Frederick Hopwood (died 2017) and Walter Pringle Lee (died 1981).

Also: Frederick McLean (died 2010), George Frederick Moynihan (died 2004), Daniel Francis Murphy (died 1998), James Robert Owens-Howard (died 2015), Gerald Ryfinski (defrocked 2007 — he had an allegation of possessing child pornography), Paul Seitz (retired 2002), Charles Sheedy (died 1989), John Simonin (died 2010) and Hayden Vaverek (defrocked 2016).

Visiting alleged predator priests were: Juan Carlos Castano-Mejia (served a prison sentence and deported to Colombia), Roger Collerett (whereabouts unknown, perhaps Canada), Anthony William Johnson of New Jersey (died 2012), James Nyhan (of Boston, whereabouts unknown), Cesare Palatore Belfiore (visiting Costa Rican priest) and James Sharples (died 1974).

Other priests with credible sexual abuse allegations are: Robert Joseph Kelly of Altoona-Johnstown (status unknown), Francis Landwermeyer (died 1918), John Mitchell (died 1996), Augustine “Austin” Park (died 2013), Gabriel “Gabe” Smith (retired), Robert Spangenberg died 2006), and Thomas Tierney (died 1972).

Other priests on the list: John Eccleston (visiting priest from Washington, D.C., died 2012), Leon Joseph Hubacz (died 1999), ernest Kennedy (died 2017), James McElroy (died 1971) Anthony Plikunas (died 1973), Bill Richardson (left priesthood in 1983), Frederick Suggs (died 1998) and Creston J. Tawes (died 1980).