Fr. Stephen B. Perzan

The Archdiocese received two allegations of abuse by Perzan in Philadelphia at St. Gabriel’s Hall for delinquent boys: one allegation in 2004 about abuse in 1991, and another allegation in 2005 about abuse in 1994-1995. The first alleged abuse in Philadelphia occurred during a time when Perzan is not indexed in the Official Catholic Directory, and the second alleged abuse in Philadelphia occurred when he was listed in the Directory as assigned to a parish in New Mexico. What’s more, the report refers to a 1998 letter from a pastor, complaining about Perzan’s behavior with children. The Directory does not list Perzan at the parish in question, but at a different parish. At the beginning of his career, Perzan had three one-year parish assignments, and his move to New Mexico coincides with a slight change in the Directory‘s spelling of his name. In 2003, with the first grand jury in session, Perzan started a two-year parish assignment in Puerto Rico. This is an extremely unusual Directory record and would be consistent with problems earlier and more numerous than those chronicled in the 2011 grand jury report. Yet the review board deemed the two known allegations unsubstantiated, and Perzan was still in ministry as of 2/12/2011.