ALLENTOWN (PA)
WFMZ
August 27, 2018
By Jaccii Farris
The Chairman of Youth Education in the Arts (YEA!) confirms that one of the 300 priests named in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s grand jury report was a drum corps instructor for Cadets 2, a weekend-only touring branch of YEA!’s drum corps.
The board suspended Father Donald Cramer, who was a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg, from all YEA! activities within 90 minutes, according to a letter from Chairman Doug Rutherford.
In a letter to the Corps, Rutherford said, “After verifying that Mr. Cramer was, in fact, the same person identified in the report, the board suspended him from all YEA! activities, all within 90 minutes. After reviewing the situation with the Board of Directors, staff and YEA! attorneys, we terminated Mr. Cramer’s contract on the third business day after the story broke without an investigation, as the grand jury report provided sufficient cause.”
Cramer was in an online chatroom and communicated with an individual in Connecticut who was charged criminally for possessing child pornography, according to the grand jury report. In Cramer’s online communications, he mentioned he wanted to go to Mexico where he could “rent” boys.
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