Fr. James L. Menapace

In 9/2014 the Diocese announced that three people had reported sexual abused as boys by Menapace in the 1990s, after his 1996 retirement. Placed on restricted ministry in 2000. Permanently removed from ministry in 7/2002. Included on the Diocese’s list 12/13/2019. Included in the MI Attorney General’s 10/2022 report. It notes that Menapace’s personnel file shows a report in 1/1985 that Menapace tried to fondle a nun’s breast at a party, and that he was inappropriate with teenagers. In 7/2000 he was accused of sexually abusing two boys when they were ages 13-14 in 1996 and 1997, at Menapace’s cottage in Gulliver Lake. The boys and their family, who were relatives of the priest, did not want to notify civil authorities. One of the boys died by suicide in 2010; he wrote in a note, “The same Catholic Church that got my dad, got my sister, got me.” His sister told the diocese in 2014 that the priest also abused their father and uncle as boys in the 1950s, and that she walked in on abuse of her brothers when they were ages 7 or 8. Allegation in 1994 of abuse of his cousin, age 13, when a seminarian. Sent to St. Luke Institute in 8/2000, then allowed limited ministry. In 2014 a relative of Menapace reported that he abused her son at ages 7-9 in the late 1990s. More reports in 9/2014 of abuse of boys in the mid-1960s and in 1983 or 1984. In 10/2014 accused of abuse of a boy, age 8 or 9, in 1969. Report in 6/2015 of propositioning a teenage boy at Superior State University; his victim died by suicide at age 31. A letter in 3/2016 shows an allegation that Menapace impregnated an adult woman. He died in 2/2022.