CLEVELAND — A local priest has been removed from public ministry after News 5 Investigators started asking questions and parents of a local Catholic school raised red flags about his past.
The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland said the priest was investigated “by law enforcement and church authorities” for “alleged conduct” with an 18-year-old, and there have been published reports on that since 2002.
The priest got his job back in 2012, but now we’ve been getting calls from parents upset because they had no idea of his past.
He hasn’t been charged with a crime, so we’re not naming him. However, the diocese did take action recently after concerns came to light.
PRIEST SAID MASSES, HEARD CONFESSIONS FOR TEENS
The Lyceum is a Catholic school in South Euclid for 7th through 12th graders. We saw students coming off a bus last month and going into the St. Elizabeth of Hungary Shrine in Cleveland. The kids have attended masses there on Tuesday mornings where the priest in question was leading the services. Parents told us he was saying masses and hearing private confessions from students for the better part of this year.
The parents, who asked to remain anonymous, found published reports about the priest’s past and a parent called the diocese with concerns. News 5 Investigators obtained an anonymous email sent by a parent warning other school families about the priest… asking in part, “Did you know about the allegations against him?… We simply want parents to be aware of the situation....”
Parents told us they were never told by The Lyceum school or the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland about the priest’s past. That has critics of the church wondering why.
“How do you protects kids? How do parents protect kids if they don’t know?” asked Claudia Vercellotti, who is from The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests or SNAP.
“You can’t tell me there’s not one more qualified cleric that could do a mass that didn’t involve somebody who has a significant past.”
PRIEST LISTED AS 'AWAITING ASSIGNMENT' BUT STILL DID MASSES
Parents also told us it didn’t make sense the priest in question was listed as “awaiting assignment” on the Cleveland Diocese website when, for months, he was saying masses for their children at St. Elizabeth of Hungary. And News 5 Investigators found at St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the priest had been participating in masses numerous times this year.
“In a position of power and authority, someone who the parishioners and students would seemingly be looking up to for moral guidance and moral direction,” said Vercellotti.
Anne Barrett Doyle from the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org questions the leadership of the Cleveland Diocese Bishop Edward Malesic.
“They’re deceiving the public,” said Barrett Doyle. “The faithful of Cleveland deserve better and the children and the youth deserve better from Bishop Malesic.”
RESPONSES FROM THE DIOCESE, SCHOOL
We asked for an on-camera interview with Bishop Malesic, but the diocese only sent a statement saying, in part, the priest’s “alleged conduct…related to an 18-year-old man has been publicly known and reported on by the media… he was not charged with any crime and no allegations of child sexual abuse… in 2012…it was required that (the priest’s) faculties be restored.”
The Headmaster of The Lyceum, Luke Macik, sent a statement as well, saying, in part, the administration ”has received no allegations or reports of misconduct against (the priest)...” and the priest has occasionally been working with the school since 2012.
However, with all that being said, the diocese also wrote, ”Going forward, (the priest) has agreed that he will no longer engage in any public ministry.”
We found he was then listed as having “no assignment” on the diocese website.
“It was truly (News 5’s) reporting that has brought this to the surface again,” said Vercellotti.
Macik also wrote us saying the priest is “no longer able to celebrate mass for The Lyceum community due to recent restrictions put in place by the Diocese of Cleveland.”
