Former Harrisburg Priest Ordered to Trial for Molesting 2 Boys

By Myles Snyder
WHTM TV
April 24, 2019

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/Former%20Harrisburg%20priest%20ordered%20to%20trial%20for%20molesting%202%20boys

A former priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg is headed to trial on charges he molested two children.

John G. Allen, 75, of York, was ordered held for court after a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. A formal arraignment is scheduled for June 7.

Allen was arrested last month on four counts of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minors. Dauphin County prosecutors say he abused the victims between 1997 and 2002 while they served as altar boys for St. Margaret Mary’s Alacoque Church in Harrisburg.

Allen is accused of grabbing one boy's buttocks on multiple occasions between 1999 and 2002 when the child was 10 years to 13 years old. The other victim says Allen fondled him on multiple occasions between 1997 and 1999 when he was between 12 and 14 years old.

Allen was removed as pastor of St. Margaret Mary’s Church in 2002 after a man reported to the diocese that Allen abused him as a boy. Pope Benedict XVI formally removed him from the priesthood in 2006.

According to a lawsuit against Allen, he was relocated to St. Margaret Mary's after he spent time in a treatment facility for sex offender priests.

Allen was named as an abuser by a statewide grand jury that investigated clergy in six Pennsylvania dioceses. He also was among 37 priests identified as abusers by the Harrisburg diocese last year.