KANSAS CITY (KS)
Kansas City Star [Kansas City MO]
July 15, 2024
By Judy L. Thomas
New substantiated sexual abuse allegations have surfaced against a former priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas who served prison time after being convicted in 2002 of indecent liberties with a child, church officials say.
“With deep sorrow for the suffering of victims and survivors of abuse, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announces that former priest Dennis Schmitz, who was laicized from the priesthood in 2005, has been the subject of additional substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors and adults over whom he held a position of authority,” the archdiocese said in a July 12 notice in The Leaven, its official newspaper.
The time frame of the alleged abuse was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the archdiocese said.
During that time, Schmitz served in numerous locations, including St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shawnee; Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park; St. Mary-St. Anthony in Kansas City, Kansas; and St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center in Lawrence. He also was vocation director for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.
In addition to those locations, Schmitz served in the following churches during his parish ministry in the archdiocese: St. Ann in Prairie Village; Queen of the Holy Rosary in Overland Park; and St. Gregory in Marysville.
Schmitz, 63, was ordained in 1989 and was the founder of the Runnin’ Revs, a group of basketball-playing priests in Kansas. He pleaded guilty in September 2002 to taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old boy in the fall of 1998 at his Douglas County residence.
Schmitz was sentenced in October 2002 to 32 months in prison. Prior to hearing his sentence, he apologized to the court and to the victim, who was seated in the courtroom.
“I don’t know why I did what I did,” Schmitz said, “but the devil works overtime and no one, no matter what their station in life, is exempt from temptation. … I promise that I will work to mend my life.”
In June 2005, his name was placed on the Kansas Registered Sex Offender site, where it is to remain for 25 years. In 2018, Schmitz was included in the archdiocesan list of substantiated clergy offenders.
Through the recent announcement, the archdiocese said, it “reaffirms its commitment to all who have been harmed by an agent of the church, to atone for the harm, and to accompany survivors using restorative processes as they work toward healing and peace.”
“The Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of minors, which is applied in the broadest sense of the term,” the archdiocese said. “We encourage anyone with knowledge about any misconduct by a church volunteer, employee, religious or clergy member — regardless of when the abuse may have occurred — to contact civil authorities first, and then call or text the archdiocese’s confidential report line at (913) 276-8703 or online at: www.archkck.org/reportabuse.”
A national advocacy group said the archdiocese should have provided more information about the new allegations against Schmitz.
“In his typically vague and secretive fashion, (Archbishop Joseph) Naumann refuses to say how many more victims of Fr. Schmitz have come forward,” said David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests., in a statement to The Star.
“Though he pled guilty to abuse in 2002, church officials only publicly declared him a ‘credibly accused’ abuser in 2019,” Clohessy said. “For seven years Fr. Schmitz was the archdiocesan vocations director, recruiting boys and young men into the priesthood. He had power over dozens of youngsters and access to thousands. The harm he inflicted on kids is incalculable.”