ILLINOIS
Effingham Daily News
Bill Grimes Daily News
SIGEL — A former trustee at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Sigel said Saturday’s permanent removal of the Rev. Robert “Bud” DeGrand from his pastoral duties was “wrong.”
In fact, George Nuxoll said, some of DeGrand’s Sigel parishioners thought so much of their longtime priest that they bought him a home, even furnishing it for him, despite an order from Bishop Thomas John Paprocki that he leave the parish and move to a home in Springfield.
“We respect him (DeGrand),” Nuxoll said. “We want him here.”
The Springfield Diocese said in a news release Saturday that Paprocki “concluded that he has no choice” but to permanently remove DeGrand from his pastoral duties. DeGrand had been on leave as the pastor, not only in Sigel, but of parishes in Neoga, Green Creek and Lillyville after a diocesan review board found that allegations of sexual misconduct against DeGrand were “credible.” Those allegations stemmed from an alleged incident in 1980 while DeGrand was serving a parish in Jacksonville.
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