PENNSYLVANIA
Observer-Reporter
AP
HOLLIDAYSBURG – Three Franciscan friars charged with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children were removed from their religious assignments in Florida and Minnesota.
Robert D’Aversa, 69; Anthony Criscitelli, 61; and Giles Schinelli, 73, are scheduled to surrender today, said Jeffrey Johnson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. They’re charged with child endangerment and criminal conspiracy.
The friars served successively as ministers provincial who headed a Franciscan religious order in Western Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. In that role, each assigned and supervised the order’s members including the late Brother Stephen Baker, who allegedly molested scores of children, most of them at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, where he was assigned from 1992 to 2000.
Schinelli was removed as pastoral administrator at the San Pedro Center, a Catholic retreat in Winter Park, Fla., while D’Aversa likewise was removed as pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Community in Mount Dora, Fla., according to the Orlando Diocese.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis said Anthony Criscitelli was removed is pastor of St. Bridget Parish Community in Minneapolis.
Orlando Bishop John Noonan issued a statement Wednesday saying he supported the decision of the Rev. Patrick Quinn, the current minister provincial of the Hollidaysburg-based Franciscan order, to remove D’Aversa and Schinelli from their Florida assignments.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.