COLUMBIA (MO)
Columbia Tribune
March 19, 2019
By Roger McKinney
With Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the background, two members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests accused Bishop Shawn McKnight and the diocese of Jefferson City of continuing to withhold information about abusive priests.
“We’re here to essentially protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s president based in St. Louis.
Geoffrey A. Brooke Jr., a priest at Immaculate Conception Church and School in Jefferson City, has been placed on administrative leave while being investigated for allegations of “boundary violations” with minors. The bishop sent an email to school families, which was passed on to a Jefferson City reporter. The email said the Missouri Children’s Division hotline had been notified.
Clohessy said Brooke previously was at the Newman Center at the University of Missouri, something not revealed by the bishop.
“He thought it wouldn’t show up in the press,” Clohessy said about the bishop’s failure to disclose information. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Clohessy said he didn’t know details, but Brooke was at the Newman Center recently because he was ordained just in 2015.
“It is tragically reckless that Bishop McKnight continues to be secretive about these dangerous clerics,” Clohessy said.
Clohessy said Brooke was ordained long after a screening process for priests was established in 2002, but he added that he didn’t think there’s any way of screening for child abusers.
The diocese in December added the name of Mel Lahr to the list of priests with credible allegations of abuse. Clohessy said Lahr was a pastor at Sacred Hearth Catholic Church in the 1970s and 1980s.
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