BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Banner [Baltimore MD]
May 5, 2023
By Tim Prudente, Jessica Calefati, Dylan Segelbaum, and Liz Bowie
[See also a letter from then-Msgr. W. Francis Malooly, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to Fr. Laurence F.X. Brett, cc’ing Msgr. Laurence R. Bronkiewicz of the Diocese of Bridgeport, August 11, 1993.]
The Maryland attorney general’s recent report on child sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore mostly repeats or expands on known allegations and names deceased abusive priests.
The report also includes new information about a group of alleged abusers and church officials whose conduct wasn’t widely known and whose names were stripped from the document before its publication.
But clergy abuse survivors say any public reckoning falls short when some of the people involved remain anonymous, so The Baltimore Banner sought to unmask them.
Reporters matched details in the report to court transcripts, archdiocesan letters, church directories, news articles and other public documents. The investigation identified three of the clergy members and one church official whose names were redacted from the report. Below, we explain how their identities were uncovered.
Official C: W. Francis Malooly
Official C was identified as W. Francis Malooly, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, using documents supplied by Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that collects publicly available documents related to clergy sexual abuse cases. The Baltimore Sun on Thursday also identified Malooly.
The report said Official C wrote to the Rev. Laurence Brett in August 1993 to notify him that the archdiocese would not allow him to continue working as a priest in Baltimore. Brett is one of the accused abusers named in the report.
In his document archive, McKiernan found the letter sent to Brett on Aug. 11, 1993, and it is signed by Malooly, who was the chancellor and vicar general for the Archdiocese of Baltimore at the time.
Official C is mentioned more than 70 times in the report, an indication that he was intimately involved in handling abuse cases for the archdiocese. And Malooly’s job assignments during the two decades he worked in Baltimore would have included that type of work.
No. 151: the Rev. John Peter Krzyzanski
Clergy member No. 151 was identified by matching elements of a lawsuit described in the report to a 2018 lawsuit filed in federal court in Georgia against the Rev. John Peter Krzyzanski. Both describe an allegation that a 6-year-old boy was told to perform a sexual act on the priest or he “would not get into heaven.”
The report lists one assignment in Georgia for No. 151 and states the outcome of the case against Krzyzanski. The survivor later appealed that decision and settled with Krzyzanski out of court.
In addition, the years of assignments for No. 151 as listed in the report match years of assignments for Krzyzanski as listed in a short biography shared with parishioners at St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church south of Atlanta.
The biographical details further match a Howard County Times article that features Krzyzanski during his assignment from 2001 to 2011 at the St. Joseph Cupertino Friary in Ellicott City.
No. 152: the Rev. Samuel Lupico
A news release from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, news articles and entries in the Official Catholic Directory all helped identify the Rev. Samuel Lupico as No. 152.
On Jan. 29, 2022, the archdiocese announced that Lupico had been removed from ministry and had had his responsibility to work as a priest suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into a child sexual abuse claim. The alleged abuse occurred in the mid-1970s when he was at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Baltimore.
The archdiocese, the report states, publicly announced that No. 152 had been suspended pending the result of an investigation into abuse. A different part of the document states the suspension took effect in…
The Asbury Park Evening Press reported on May 22, 1965, that Lupico had been ordained in the Diocese of Trenton. No. 152 first served as an associate pastor during 1965-1967 in New Jersey, according to the report.
Lupico held a number of other assignments that appear to match up with No. 152. For example, Lupico helped St. Mary of the Assumption in Baltimore and St. Pius X in Towson from 2005 to 2022 after retiring. The report states No. 152 held two roles during that same period in Maryland.
No. 155: the Rev. Joseph O’Meara
The Banner used information in a letter from the archdiocese, news articles and entries in the Official Catholic Directory to identify the Rev. Joseph O’Meara as No. 155.
On Dec. 22, 2019, the Rev. Isaac Makovo sent a letter to parishioners at St. Agnes Catholic Church and St. William of York stating that O’Meara, a retired priest in residence, had been removed from active ministry after three women accused him of “touching them inappropriately.”
According to the report, No. 155 retired in 2010 and three women reported in 2020 that No. 155 touched their breasts.
The Baltimore Sun reported on May 25, 1995, that the archdiocese named O’Meara the temporary administrator of St. Rose of Lima after a priest had been stripped of his right to offer Mass because of “very, very credible evidence” that he had sexually abused several boys.
The report states No. 155 was asked to serve as a temporary administrator “in the wake of priests being removed based on reports of child sexual abuse.”