BUCKS COUNTY (PA)
The Times Herald
August 12, 2018
By Dutch Godshalk for Digital First Media
Mike McDonnell is on a “personal vendetta” against the Catholic church.
It’s a battle he’s been fighting his entire life. He waged it in 2007, when he was 38 years old, but the fight truly started when he was a sixth grader at St. Titus Parish in East Norriton Township. That’s when McDonnell alleges he was sexually abused by two parish priests, Francis X. Trauger and John P. Schmeer. He said the abuse lasted two years – from 1981 to 1983.
(Trauger was defrocked by the Catholic Church and removed from ministry in 2003. Schmeer was removed from ministry in 2012.)
McDonnell said the abuse took place in hotel rooms and rectories and sacristies. It took place during golf trips and fishing trips. It involved situations that, to an outside observer, may have seemed innocent, even enriching. But no matter the venue or the wholesome pretense, these situations often devolved into “sick and twisted” acts of sexual and psychological torture, McDonnell said.
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