NEW YORK
Daily Freeman
[with copy of a letter from the archdiocese]
By Ariél Zangla, azangla@freemanonline.com ArielAtFreeman on Twitter
RHINEBECK >> A Dutchess County parish priest has been removed from ministry permanently after decades-old sexual abuse allegations against him were found to have merit.
Law enforcement and the New York Archdiocesan Review Board examined the allegations against Rev. Peter Kihm and found them to be credible, Bishop Dominick Lagonegro wrote in a March 14 letter to parishioners of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rhinebeck. As a result of that review, he said, Kihm cannot return to ministry.
Kihm also requested, and has received, a “return to the lay state” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Lagonegro wrote.
“This means that he will never again be able to serve as a priest here in this archdiocese or anywhere else in the world,” the bishop wrote.
Kihm was suspended on Jan. 25, 2015, as the parish priest at the Good Shepherd and St. Joseph churches in Northern Dutchess based on allegations that, approximately 30 years ago, he sexually abused an underage male. He was suspended by church officials pending an investigation by law-enforcement officials.
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