Second Priest Had History of Pedophilia, Church Says

By Debbi Wilgoren and Laurie Goodstein
Washington Post
February 8, 1995

A second of four Roman Catholic priests dismissed last month for molesting an altar boy in a Lanham parish in the 1970s had a record of pedophilia that the Archdiocese of Washington knew about long before he was disciplined in the Lanham case, church officials said yesterday.

The Rev. Edward B. Pritchard was accused in 1986 of sexually abusing youths at Holy Redeemer Parish in Kensington in the 1970s, according to an archdiocese statement. On Monday, the archdiocese confirmed that another of the four, the Rev. Thomas S. Schaefer, had been treated for molesting children twice in the 1960s, once in the 1970s and again in 1982.

Pritchard, now 50, was evaluated and sent for treatment, then reassigned in 1987 to St. Patrick Parish, a 200-year-old downtown Washington church that the archdiocese said caters to tourists and city workers and does not have altar boys. A church pastor said last year, however, that the parish had a core membership of 135 families from the District and its suburbs.

Pritchard was transferred last year to St. Mary Mother of God Roman Catholic Church, also downtown, where he served as associate pastor until about two weeks ago, when Cardinal James A. Hickey removed him and three other priests from their assignments.

The dismissals were announced at weekend Masses in the parishes where the abuse occurred and where the priests served most recently. Church officials said all four priests had admitted molesting an altar boy at the Church of St. Matthias the Apostle in Lanham. One priest, the Rev. Alphonsus Smith, 70, also said he abused a youth at Our Lady of Sorrows church in Takoma Park from 1988 to 1993.

The priests are receiving counseling at separate undisclosed facilities. They have not been charged with sex crimes, Prince George's County police said, because no victim has lodged a criminal complaint.

In an unusual move, the archdiocese officials told The Washington Post ahead of time about Sunday's announcement, saying they wanted to deal openly with the "painful topic." After the subsequent disclosures, diocesan spokeswoman Dawn Weyrich Ceol said, "We wish we had released everything on the first day, but . . . our first concern was for the people in the parishes who were affected.

"We have come out with all the information that we have at this time," she said.

In yesterday's statement, Hickey said he would not protect pedophiliac priests or allow them to return to the ministry, echoing a policy that Ceol said the archdiocese has followed since the late 1980s.

Ceol could not explain why Pritchard, who was accused in 1986, was not removed from parish duty after the policy took effect. But she stressed that neither he nor Schaefer had worked with children recently.

"Consistent with recommendations of therapists, we placed them in limited ministries, controlled environments where they had no contact with minors," Ceol said.