TITUSVILLE (PA)
The Titusville Herald
August 15, 2018
By Sean P. Ray
A long-serving Monsignor at St. Titus Church was among the 301 Catholic priests named in a grand jury report about sexual abuse within the Pennsylvania Catholic Church.
The 887-page report, which was released Tuesday and made by 23 grand jurors, details several reports of abuse across six of Pennsylvania’s eight Dioceses, including the Diocese of Erie, which has Crawford and Venango counties within its coverage area.
A total of 41 “predator priests,” as they are called in the report, are named as operating in the Diocese of Erie. Among them was a priest who served more than two decades at St. Titus Church, in Titusville.
A report on Monsignor James P. Hopkins is given in the grand jury document. According to the report, a victim wrote a letter to Erie Bishop Donald Trautman on Aug. 3, 1993, in which she stated that Hopkins grabbed and kissed girls inappropriately.
The girl alleged that in 1945, she experienced personal abuse by Hopkins when she was 13-years of age, stating that Hopkins would, “grab our face in his hands, force us to look up, and then plant a sloppy kiss on our mouths. He would also grab us and pull us close, wrap his cape around us, and fondle us whenever he pleased.”
The Herald was unable to find record of a Monsignor James P. Hopkins in Herald archives. However, a Monsignor James F. Hopkins was named in multiple articles within the same time frame that James P. Hopkins would’ve been St. Titus’ pastor, possibly indicating a mistake in the report.
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