OHIO
Cleveland.com
By Patrick Cooley, Northeast Ohio Media Group
on November 08, 2013
CLEVELAND, Ohio — More than 30 people were charged on suspicion of soliciting for sex in Cleveland in October, but only one made the news. That one was James McGonegal, pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch, a West Side Catholic church, and he is accused of soliciting sex from an off-duty ranger at Edgewater Park on Oct. 11.
McGonegal’s arrest made headlines in every major northeast Ohio media outlet. Reporters attended mass the weekend of his arrest, and camera crews from television stations camped out near the venerable stone church on Lorain Avenue, hoping to convince parishioners to speak on the record.
“It’s important to remember that many people are arrested for soliciting, and most of them are not priests,” said Candice Risen, a therapist for Levine, Risen and Associates, a Beachwood practice which deals with marital and sexual issues.
Priests however, tend to receive more scrutiny after such an arrest.
“Some would say it’s because of the anti-Catholic bias in the media,” said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, a writer in residence at John Carroll University.
But he said it’s more likely that their status as a moral authority makes their arrests more noticeable. Catholics tend to have a lofty notion of priesthood, Cozzens said, which can be difficult to live up to, and can make a public failure or embarrassment all the more biting.
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