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List of the Accusations Involving Philadelphia Archdiocese Priests By Craig R. McCoy, Nancy Phillips and Mark Fazlollah http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/12666751.htm The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church surfaced in 2002 with revelations of rampant victimization in Boston and quickly enveloped the church nationwide. Since then, the Philadelphia Archdiocese has said that at least 44 diocesan priests had been credibly accused of abusing minors over the previous half-century. Several other priests from religious orders who either served in the archdiocese or lived there have also been accused of abuses. The church has declined to publicly name all of the accused. A grand jury that has spent three years investigating abuse within the Philadelphia Archdiocese has identified more than 50 abusers and is expected to release a comprehensive report soon. Through court documents and interviews, The Inquirer has identified dozens of the alleged abusers. All lawsuits against the church have been dismissed by the courts, although some are on appeal. While not exhaustive, this list, which includes one nun, provides details on some of the accusations leveled as the scandal has unfolded. [ Avery | Behan | Brugger | Brzyski | Cannon | Chambers | Cochrane | Connor | Cudemo | Delli Carpini | DePaoli | Dowling | Durkin | Dux | Furmanski | Gana | Gausch | Henry | Jones | Kornacki | Killian | Kohler | Leneweaver | Martins | Nawn | Newman | O’Neill | Rhoads (a nun) | Rogers | Satchell | Schmeer | Sicoli | Siegele | Smith | Swierzy | Trauger ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: The archdiocese said a "credible" allegation of sexual misconduct had been leveled against Avery. The church said the alleged abuse began in 1978 and continued into the 1980s. In an interview Avery, now 62, disputed that. He said the allegation involved a teenaged boy whom he had invited to sleep at the rectory. He said he had no sexual contact with the boy. Avery was an assistant pastor at St. Philip Neri Parish in Pennsburg from 1976 to 1978, and at St. Agatha-St. James Parish in Philadelphia from 1978 to 1984 - when the alleged abuse occurred. He also was pastor of St. Therese of the Child Jesus Church in East Mount Airy. Status: After the allegations surfaced, Avery was sent for treatment and was assigned to be a chaplain at Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, a post that minimized contact with children. In December 2003, Avery was removed from his chaplaincy. He was told to leave his residence at nearby St. Jerome Church. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In February 2005, Behan pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a student in the late 1970s while teaching religious studies at Northeast Catholic High School. He was indicted last year by the grand jury investigating sexual abuse of minors by clergy, the only criminal charges arising from that inquiry. Behan, 60, is still a priest with the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. Martin Donohue, of Medford Lakes, N.J., said the priest first forced him to have oral sex in 1978, when he was a 15-year-old Northeast Catholic freshman. The attacks continued for two years. Behan left Philadelphia to serve from 1980 to 2002 as a priest in North Carolina, where he reportedly also was conducting youth retreats. In 2002, Donohue told church officials there about Behan's attacks at Northeast Catholic. He also told the Philadelphia District Attorney's office. Prosecutors successfully argued that Pennsylvania's statute of limitations on rape did not apply to Behan because he left the state. Status: Behan is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 28 for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors. He faces up to 25 years in prison. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In 2002, a man told the church that Brugger had abused him in 1974 when the accuser was 15. The assaults took place at St. Ann's parish in Phoenixville. When the charge was leveled, Brugger was serving as pastor of St. Helen's parish in Olney. Before that, he was principal of St. James High School in Chester and Bishop McDevitt High School in Montgomery County. Status: The church removed Brugger from ministry in 2002, calling the complaint against him "credible." Brugger, now 58 and living in Center City, did not respond to a request for comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Twelve men have said in interviews with The Inquirer or law-enforcement officials that Brzyski raped or assaulted them when they were children. After victims complained to the church about Brzyski in the 1980s, he was removed from his duties. Brzyski kept visiting the family of one accuser, who says the abuse continued for four more years. Victims had gone for help to the Rev. James Gigliotti, who reported the abuse to top church officials. In an interview with The Inquirer, Gigliotti said the church told him at the time not to talk about why Brzyski had been removed. Brzyski, 54, who now lives in Chesapeake, Va., did not respond to requests for comment. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In lawsuits, two accusers alleged that Cannon molested them 40 years ago while they attended a church summer camp run by St. Monica's parish. One says the abuse continued for four years. Another alleged in his suit that he was "afraid to cry for help" when Cannon fondled and masturbated him at a summer camp in 1959. Cannon left the camp job in 1964, and then taught for about two decades at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Delaware County. Status: In 2003, the church removed Cannon from any assignments, saying it "deemed credible" the evidence against him. Cannon, 82, has remained a priest, and lives at the church retirement home in Darby. In an interview with The Inquirer, he denied the allegations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, three brothers say Chambers molested them in the late 1950s at St. Gregory's Church in West Philadelphia. The suit says the molestation occurred in the church, in cars, and on trips to the Poconos, the Jersey shore and elsewhere, as well as in an orphanage to which Chambers had been assigned. One brother has testified before the Philadelphia grand jury investigating abuse by priests. Status: Chambers retired in 1963 and died in 1974. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In 2003, Cochrane, an Augustinian priest and former teacher at Malvern Preparatory School in Chester County, was sentenced to up to four years in prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student at the school. Cochrane, who taught theology for 24 years at Malvern, pleaded no contest to a charge of statutory sexual assault. The school is not part of the archdiocesan system. At his trial, two boys testified that Cochrane had assaulted them. He was arrested for an attack that took place during a trip to the Poconos in 1991. Prosecutors said another man who had attended the school as a teenager had also accused Cochrane of such an assault. But they said this accuser came forward too late for them to bring charges. Status: Cochrane, 60, will not deal with the public upon his release from prison, the order said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Connor was arrested in 1984 for molesting a student at Bishop Eustace school in Pennsauken, N.J. After he agreed to therapy at a mental-health facility, record of the criminal charge was expunged. In an interview with The Inquirer, Connor admitted the molestation. "It was just touching," he said in 2002. "I was bombed out of my mind." He said he was "very sorry." Connor, 71, was a priest with the Camden diocese. After his arrest, he worked for three years in the Pittsburgh diocese, where he underwent continued therapy and treatment, church officials say. In 1988, he was assigned to the Philadelphia Archdiocese and served at St. Matthew's parish in Conshohocken until 1993. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who led the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 1988 to 2003, has said that his memory was "vague" but recalled that Camden's bishop had once described Connor as a fine priest whose record was marred by one alcohol-related incident - an incident that Bevilacqua said the bishop "hinted" was sexual. Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the Camden diocese, said the diocese told officials in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia of Connor's arrest and they accepted him nonetheless. Connor returned to the Camden diocese in 1993, where his ministry was restricted to a hospital chaplaincy. Status: In 2002, Connor was permanently removed from ministry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Cudemo is alleged to have assaulted eight children - abusing several young girls even after one had warned the church about his behavior, according to people familiar with his record. The abuse allegedly began in the 1960s and continued for more than a decade. The attacks took place in rectories of Ss. Cosmas and Damien Church in Conshohocken, St. Titus Church in Norristown, St. Helena Church in Blue Bell, and the sanctuary at Cardinal Dougherty High School, accusers say. Diane Freedman Drinker says the priest raped her when she was 10 and continued to attack her for six years. The church later paid extensive medical bills for her. In 1991, Drinker and two of her cousins told the church Cudemo had abused them years ago. In 1994, the church removed Cudemo from his parish assignments, but it later issued him a letter declaring him a priest in good standing. The letter was signed by the senior church official then charged with evaluating complaints against priests. As late as 2000, Cudemo was saying Mass at St. Matthews Church in Conshohocken. During his career, Cudemo taught at three archdiocesan high schools, St. John Neumann, Dougherty and Archbishop Kennedy. Cudemo, 69, has declined comment. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In an interview with The Inquirer, a Philadelphia man said Delli Carpini abused him, beginning when he was 13 years old and continuing until he was 20. The man, now 41, said he met Delli Carpini when he served as an altar boy at St. Luke the Evangelist parish in Glenside in the late 1970s. He said that he had reported the abuse to the archdiocese in 1998. The church later paid for extensive therapy and medication for the man, he said. Delli Carpini taught at Philadelphia's Roman Catholic High School in the 1980s and later served as a dean at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Delli Carpini, now 56 and living in Wayne, could not be reached for comment. Status: In 2000, he was assigned to serve as a chaplain at a home for retired nuns. In 2005, he was defrocked. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: DePaoli was convicted in 1986 of possessing pornographic magazines, films and videos of boys while he was at Holy Martyrs parish in Oreland, Montgomery County. He was given a one-year suspended sentence. After counseling, the archdiocese put him in "extremely restricted ministry." He was barred from saying public Mass, except with another priest. He continued to work as a priest until 2002. The church said DePaoli, 60, had not been kept to the restrictions because of a communications breakdown. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Dowling, a retired Center City pastor, admitted to The Inquirer that he had repeatedly fondled a teenage girl decades ago. Once head of a church human-relations panel, Dowling, 75, is the highest-ranking priest in the archdiocese to be publicly accused of sex abuse. Dowling's admission came after a reporter asked him about the accounts of two sisters who told the newspaper of years of abuse beginning in the early 1960s when they were preteens at Corpus Christi Church in North Philadelphia. Pat McMenamin, now 53 and living in Florida, and her sister, 54, who still lives in the Philadelphia area, reported the abuse to the District Attorney's Office shortly after the grand jury investigation began in 2002. Another pair of sisters told the church this year that Dowling sexually abused them decades ago when they were parishioners at Corpus Christi, according to one of the sisters. Status: Dowling was barred from ministry after The Inquirer reported the allegations against him. He lives at a church retirement and treatment center in Darby. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In an interview with The Inquirer, a man said he has told the District Attorney's office that Durkin abused him and his brother and molested his sister during the 1960s. At the time, Durkin was a priest at Borromeo parish. The man, now 55, said the abuse began when he was 10 and continued for four years. He said he did not tell his parents until he saw Durkin fondle his 7-year-old sister while the priest and the children were watching TV. He said his father called police, but no charges were filed for reasons that could not be learned. The family also alerted the church, which the man said paid an undisclosed financial settlement. A second man, now 48, told The Inquirer that Durkin abused him for two years, beginning when he was 8 years old and Durkin was his priest at Holy Savior parish in Linwood, Delaware County. Durkin, 54, did not return phone calls. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In interviews with The Inquirer, two men said they were abused by Dux in the 1970s and 1980s. One said the priest fondled him in the sacristy of a local church, where he served as an altar boy when he was in seventh and eighth grade. The other said Dux repeatedly molested him at the priest's house in Brigantine. Dux served at St. Eugene Church in Primos, Delaware County, and St. John the Baptist Church in Manayunk. Status: Donna M. Farrell, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, said it would not answer questions about Dux, but a church official said the abuse allegations were considered credible. Dux, 82, who did not respond to requests for comment, lives at the church home in Darby. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Furmanski was alleged to have abused a young girl in the mid-1970s, a charge that the archdiocese in 2003 "deemed credible." Furmanski has denied the allegation, church officials said. The woman, now 40 and living in Malvern, told the grand jury that the priest repeatedly assaulted her, beginning when she was 14, her lawyer said in an interview. At the time, Furmanski was her parish priest at Sacred Heart Church in Bridgeport, Montgomery County. Furmanski was principal of Archbishop Kennedy High School in the 1960s and later a teacher at Cardinal O'Hara High. He served as pastor of five parishes before he was made a monsignor in 1998. Status: Furmanski, who is now 73, was removed from any church assignments in 2003. He lives at the Darby facility. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: After an initial abuse complaint was leveled against Gana, the church kept him in active ministry. Gana is alleged to have assaulted children from Our Lady of Calvary Church in Northeast Philadelphia and Ascension of Our Lord Church in Kensington. In interviews with The Inquirer, two accusers said that Gana had abused them in the 1970s and 1980s. One accuser says Gana first attacked him when he was 13 and went to the priest for counseling after he was raped by a family friend. The abuse continued for a decade, he said. The assaults took place in the Ascension church and rectory, on a trip to Disney World, and at Gana's farm in Northeastern Pennsylvania, he said. The man said Gana routinely took groups of boys to the farm, selecting individuals for sex. Status: After receiving the complaints in the 1990s, the church limited Gana to serving as a chaplain in a monastery. In 2002, the archdiocese dismissed him, along with a group of priests let go that year because of abuse allegations. Gana, now 63 and living in Northeast Philadelphia, did not respond to requests for comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: According to interviews and lawsuits, Gausch molested six children - years after earlier victims had warned the archdiocese that the priest was an abuser. In an interview, a 55-year-old Delaware County man said he had testified before the grand jury that his parents went to the church in the early 1960s after he told them Gausch repeatedly molested him. He said the assaults took place when he was a 13-year-old altar boy at Our Lady of Peace Church in Folsom, Delaware County. Gausch was moved to new assignments. According to the lawsuits, he went on to molest the other victims, at St. Bridget's in East Falls, Queen of the Universe in Levittown and Good Shepherd in Southwest Philadelphia. Gausch is alleged to have abused children as far back as the 1940s. Status: Gausch died in 1999 at age 83. The church declined comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: The archdiocese said it had received an allegation against Henry of "inappropriate behavior" with a minor "many years ago." Status: Henry, now 67, was dismissed last year from his post at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Southampton, Bucks County. He is living "a supervised life of prayer and penance" at the church's Darby home, the archdiocese said. Henry did not respond to a request for comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, a man contended that Jones victimized him when he was 15 and a student at Cardinal O'Hara High School. The suit said Jones coerced the teenager into moving in with the priest at a church-owned building on the grounds of Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Marple Township, Delaware County. The teenager lived with Jones for three years and was frequently assaulted, according the suit, which said Jones would introduce the teenager as "my adopted son." In an interview with The Inquirer, another man said that he, too, had lived with Jones as a teenager and had been repeatedly molested. Jones, 73, could not be located for comment. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Kornacki, 57, pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Philadelphia to possession of child pornography. Federal agents found 150 pornographic images on his personal laptop computer, seized by Secret Service agents during a search at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Kornacki served in five city and four suburban Roman Catholic parishes in 31 years as a priest. At his last posting, he was assistant director of the seminary's program for continuing education of priests. Status: Kornacki was removed from ministry in 2003. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In an interview with The Inquirer and in a lawsuit, a Philadelphia woman has said Killian repeatedly touched her genitals when she was 10 and a parishioner at St. Richard's Church in South Philadelphia in the mid 1950s. In a separate interview, a man said Killian put him and other children in skimpy outfits and made one girl dance naked. The complainant, Mary Logan, said she called the archdiocese last year and was offered an apology and counseling, but she was not told whether the archdiocese considered her allegations credible. Status: Killian died in 1965 after serving for 30 years at St. Richard's. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Kohler was arrested in New Jersey and charged with child obscenity in 1994, the same year authorities said he joined an ex-priest in a pornographic photo session with a boy in Cape May County. Kohler was a priest in the Philadelphia Archdiocese when arrested. The outcome of the case could not be determined; court records for it are no longer available. He was also named as a defendant in a 1995 lawsuit by a man who said Kohler had abused him between 1973 and 1978, when he was an altar boy at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Bucks County. The suit was settled under undisclosed terms. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Two men have told law enforcement officials that Leneweaver abused them when they were teenagers, according to people familiar with the matter. One says the priest threatened him and warned him not to talk about the priest's conduct. Leneweaver taught at Cardinal O'Hara High School in the early 1970s. He also served at St. Monica Church in South Philadelphia and St. Agnes Church in West Chester. He was placed on sick leave in 1981. After that, he apparently left the church. He went on to teach in public schools in Millville, N.J., and Radnor Township. He taught Latin at Memorial School in Millville from February 1991 to June 1992. He taught the same subject at Radnor Middle School during the 2003-04 year. There were no reports of abuse at either school, officials said. Leneweaver, 71, of Villanova, did not respond to requests for comment. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martins, a Jesuit priest, pleaded guilty in 1985 to sexual assault for raping a 12-year-old altar boy at Incarnation of Our Lord Church in Olney. He served five weeks in prison and was deported to his native Brazil. There, he resumed his duties as a priest, with access to children. Status: Church officials in Brazil have said they had no knowledge of his Philadelphia conviction. The Inquirer could not locate Martins. Officials at his last known diocese in Brazil said recently that he had left his parish and they did not know how to contact him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, a Philadelphia man said Nawn molested him in 1962 - after he went to Nawn to report abuse by another priest. The suit says the assaults by Nawn took place at the rectory of St. Peter the Apostle Church, in the Fishtown section. A second man, who now lives in Virginia, has told the grand jury and The Inquirer that Nawn assaulted him in the 1960s, when he was a student at Dougherty. The man, now 58, said Nawn assaulted him on an overnight trip to New York city when he was 14. Status: Nawn is dead. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, a South Jersey man says that Newman gave him drugs and alcohol and performed oral sex on him in the mid-1990s when Newman was principal of Archbishop Ryan High. The complainant, Arthur Baselice of Mantua, says Ryan later paid him more than $42,000 to buy his silence and help cover his drug debts by diverting money from a school tuition fund. Newman resigned from Ryan last year after the archdiocese said it had found financial irregularities there, but no criminal behavior. Status: Newman, who belongs to a Franciscan order, did not respond to requests for comment. The order has removed him from active ministry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, a Delaware man contends that O'Neill molested him for nine years while he was a schoolboy in Wilmington. The priest was reassigned from Delaware to Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Bucks County, after the student, in 1985, first complained about him to church officials. O'Neill was Wood's principal from 1986 to 1991. Status: O'Neill is retired. He belongs to the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. A spokesman said the order had found it credible that O'Neill had assaulted his victim once, but could not confirm that there had been years of abuse. Through his lawyer, O'Neill declined to comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Rhoads was a nun serving in Virginia and the Philadelphia Archdiocese until she was released from her vows in 1974. As a layperson, she went on to teach at Holy Cross School in Delaware County for about a decade. She was convicted in Virginia last year of abusing a child there 35 years ago when she was a nun and has admitted that she sexually assaulted children in two Delaware County Catholic schools, first as a nun and later as a lay teacher. Four men and a woman filed suits in Philadelphia alleging that Rhodes had sexually abused them when they were students at Holy Cross School in mid-1970s and 1980s. Status: She served three months in jail for the Virginia attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In interviews, a man has said that Rogers abused him for seven years, starting when the man was 9. He said the abuse took place during the 1960s in the rectory of St. Joachim's in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, among other places. Rogers admitted the abuse in an interview with The Inquirer. "It may have happened but it was not as prolonged as he says it was," Rogers said in 2002. "Naturally, he was young and I was older, so I should have known better." In 1998, the victim finally reported the abuse to the archdiocese. It agreed to pay for therapy, providing $68,000. Status: Rogers was reassigned to the church home in Darby until his death this year at age 85. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: A 28-year-old Montgomery County man says Satchell assaulted him in 1993, when he was 16. His family reported the abuse to the archdiocese, which removed Satchell from ministry. At the time, Satchell was a newly ordained priest who had worked for a few months at St. Raymond of Penafort in the city's Germantown section. After leaving the church, Satchell went on to teach at three private schools - the Haverford School, Westown School and Episcopal Academy - between 1997 and 2002. School officials said they would not have hired Satchell had they known of the abuse allegation. Through his lawyer, Satchell, 38, declined to comment. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: A 52-year-old Drexel Hill man contended in a lawsuit that Schmeer, along with another priest, molested him when he was a student at Roman Catholic in the late 1960s. Schmeer was the boy's school counselor at the time, the suit says. Schmeer later became pastor of St. Martin of Tours Church in New Hope. The archdiocese judged the allegation unfounded when the man brought his complaint in 2002. The church later said it had received "several" additional allegations against Schmeer. He has denied the allegations. Status: Last November, the church dismissed Schmeer, 70, as pastor of St. Martin of Tours. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In a lawsuit, three men alleged that from 1980 to 1983, when they were teenagers, Sicoli served them alcohol and abused them at his beach home in Sea Isle City, N.J. At the time, the men said, they were altar boys at Immaculate Conception parish in Levittown. Sicoli, a priest in the archdiocese since 1975, was an assistant at Immaculate Conception. Status: The church dismissed Sicoli as pastor of Holy Spirit parish in South Philadelphia in 2004, after the archdiocese launched an investigation of complaints against him. He has denied the charges. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: In an interview with The Inquirer, a Philadelphia man said Siegele abused him when he was in his mid-teens, in the 1960s. After the victim later took his complaint to the archdiocese, in 1992, the church agreed to pay him $2,000 a month and reimburse him for therapy. In all, the church paid him more than $178,000. Last year, another man alleged that Siegele had molested him in the early 1960s. His lawsuit says that Siegele, then at Cardinal Dougherty High School, would remove him from classes for "discipline" but then molest him in an empty classroom. Status: Siegele, also the former pastor of Holy Child and St. Barnabas parishes in Philadelphia, died in 1989 at age 60. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Smith was removed as principal of St. John Neumann High School in South Philadelphia two decades ago after allegations of molesting students, the Daily News has reported. In 2002, a former student at the high school filed a complaint with the District Attorney's Office against Smith. The student claimed that he had watched Smith molest two boys and that Smith had also molested the complainant himself. The man said the assaults took place 40 years ago, at a time before Smith had been promoted to principal. Status: Smith could not be reached for comment. He belongs to the Norbitine order. The order has barred Smith from dealing with the public but permitted him to continue working for the church, wearing his collar and using the title "Father." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: Swierzy was removed in 1997 from a parish in Lower Makefield, Bucks County, after he was accused of giving an altar boy beer, taking him to bed and kissing him. The boy's family went to police; Swierzy later pleaded guilty to a morals charge and was put on probation. Swierzy, a former principal at Cardinal Dougherty High School, was later removed from the ministry. Status: Defrocked, shortly before his death this year at age 57. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allegations: A lawsuit contended that Trauger abused two boys and he remained in parish ministry for two decades, even though one boy's parents alleged abuse to the archdiocese within months of the attack. One man said Gana abused him numerous times in 1973 when he was about 11 years old and a parishioner at St. Leo Church parish in Northeast Philadelphia. He said the attacks occurred at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where the priest would take him to play basketball and swim. Later, he said, they would shower together and the priest would assault him. A second man said Trauger molested him in 1981, when he was about 11 and an altar boy at St. Titus parish in Norristown. He said the priest assaulted him at the seminary and on a trip to the Poconos. This man's parents told the church in 1982, according to the lawsuit. Trauger continued to serve at parishes in Philadelphia and its suburbs for the next two decades. In 2003, the archdiocese barred him from ministry, saying it had received "credible" complaints against him. Trauger, now 60 and living in Doylestown, denied the allegations. Status: Defrocked, 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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