Pocomoke City Catholic pastor removed after Delaware sexual misconduct allegations

By Rose Velazquez
Delmarvanow.com
July 25, 2019

https://bit.ly/2OnxEC9

This photo of Reverend William J. Porter ran in a September 2003 edition of The Daily Times when he was named pastor of Holy Name of Jesus in Pocomoke City.

A Pocomoke City pastor accused in March of sexual misconduct with a teenager in Delaware nearly 40 years ago has been removed from ministry.

A Thursday statement from the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington shows Reverend William J. Porter, 71, has been pastor at Holy Name of Jesus in Pocomoke City since 2003.

However, the diocese said he was accused March 1 of sexual misconduct 38 years ago at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle, Delaware.

Porter's accuser was a teenager at the time the allegations occurred, according to the statement. After the diocese notified Delaware State Police and the Delaware Attorney General's Office, police launched an investigation.

That state police investigation finished July 19 because the diocese said the conduct occurred outside the statute of limitations, but Porter remains under investigation by the Wilmington Police Department because of similar allegations.

"Therefore, the Most Reverend W. Francis Malooly, Bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, has now removed Father Porter from ministry and suspended his faculties to exercise priestly ministries. The Diocese of Wilmington has and will continue to cooperate fully with all civil authorities in their investigation of this matter," the statement said Thursday.

The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington comprises 56 parishes, 18 missions and 36 schools in Delaware and the nine counties of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Porter was ordained in 1975 and was pastor at St. Luke/St. Andrew in Ocean City between 1991 and 2003. Before that, the diocese said he was a faculty member at St. Elizabeth High School in Wilmington from 1982 to 1991 and at Saint Mark's High School in Wilmington from 1979 to 1982.

The statement shows he was also an assistant principal at St. Elizabeth High School from 1977 to 1978 and an associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Parish in Wilmington from 1975 to 1977.