Rev. Mario Arbelaez Olarte-Assignment

Rev. Mario Arbelaez Olarte or Rev. Mario Olarte Arbelaez

Ordained: 1994

Arrested 5/03 and charged with enticing a minor over the Internet. Claimed he was doing research but he was posing as a 20 yr old. He agreed to meet what he thought was a 15 yr old boy but it was a police officer. Placed on leave and his computer seized. In 9/03 he pleaded no contest to the criminal charges. Did not show up for sentencing 11/03. Defense atty said that Olarte had returned to his native country of Columbia as part of plea agreement. Prosecutors denied. Judge issued an arrest warrant.

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1994	1997					Olarte is not indexed in the 1994-1997 Directories. Per the diocese, he came to the U.S. from Columbia in 1997. (Deseret News (Salt Lake City) May 16, 2003)
1997 Salt Lake City bishop was George Hugh Niederauer (1994-2005)	2000	St. Therese of the Child Jesus	Midvale	UT	2/2	Parish had a religious education program with 225-250 students. News accounts refer to him as Rev. Mario Arbelaez Olarte, but he appears in the Directories as Rev. Mario Olarte Arbelaez.
Aug. 2000	2003	St. Joseph's	Ogden • Arrested in May 2003 for trying to lure a fifteen year old boy over the internet. The "boy" was actually an undercover police officer. (Salt Lake Tribune [Ogden UT] Downloaded May 17, 2003) Pleaded no contest in Sept. 2003, and released. (Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) September 10, 2003) Fled the U.S. and returned to his native Columbia prior to sentencing.(Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) November 5, 2003)	UT	2/4, 2/3	Parish had a religious education program with 420-525 students. Olarte is not indexed in the 2001 Directory, but news reports place him at St. Joseph's beginning in August 2000.
Aug. 2000	2003	St. Florencee	Huntsville	UT		This was a mission of St. Joseph's in Ogden. Olarte no longer appears in the Directories after 2003.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1998-2003).

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.