OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
NewsOK
August 23, 2018
By Carla Hinton and Randy Ellis
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City said Wednesday that it removed a priest from duty in 2002 after receiving what it determined as “credible accusations of abuse” against him.
Benjamin Zoeller was removed as a priest in 2002 and Pope Benedict XVI formally stripped him of his priestly rights and authority in 2011 through a process called laicization, an archdiocese spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The archdiocese released a statement about Zoeller on Wednesday in response to an Aug. 17 letter from a 49-year-old former Oklahoman who said he was 16 and a member of the clergyman’s Oklahoma City parish when he was sexually abused by the then-priest in 1985.
Zoeller was never charged with sexual abuse related to the incident.
The alleged victim said he was prompted to write the letter after the recent release of a highly disturbing grand jury report alleging abuse of more than 1,000 children by hundreds of Catholic priests in Pennsylvania. The man, who now lives in Minnesota, is not being identified because of The Oklahoman’s policy not to name victims of sex crimes.
The man said he was dismayed by the years-long cover-up of abuse that the Pennsylvania report shared in detail and he was prompted to reach out to the Oklahoma City archdiocese to see if anyone had ever reported Zoeller to law enforcement authorities.
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