Deacon Howard F. Lake
Ordained for the permanent diaconate in 1981. Per the 12/2024 MI Attorney General’s Lansing diocese report, Lake was accused in 7/1992 of sexually abusing a girl, age 15 or 16, five or six years before his ordination. His accuser said he fondled her above the waist and kissed her, at a retreat at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. Lake was said to have been “about the same age as [the girl’s] father.” The previous year, in 1991, a woman alleged that Lake sexually harassed and slandered her, pressuring her to have sex with him. She was employed at his parish and he was her supervisor. Lake also allegedly embezzled money from the parish. In 2/1992 Lake agreed to “put on hold [his] status as a permanent Deacon for the Diocese of Lansing.” Lake died in 1996. It appears he continued ministry; per his obituary, Lake was given the Diocese’s Respect Life Award.
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