IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Archdiocese of Philadelphia
By Matthew Gambino
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) — Two
priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been found unsuitable for
ministry, the archdiocese announced Aug. 19 following Masses at the parishes
where Father Andrew D. McCormick and Msgr. Gregory J. Parlante most recently
served.
The ministry for both
priests has been restricted during the course of the church investigation and
their respective legal proceedings.
For Father McCormick, 62,
that course has been long and winding. Arrested and charged in July 2012 for
allegedly sexually abusing a minor, he faced criminal trials in 2014 and 2015. Both
ended indecisively in mistrials, and prosecutors later dropped all charges
against him.
The civil lawsuit that followed
concluded in an out-of-court settlement in early 2018, the details of which
were not made available by the archdiocese.
The archdiocesan
statement said the charges against Father McCormick stemmed from a report of
alleged abuse first made directly to law enforcement and of which the
archdiocese had no prior knowledge.
He had been placed on
leave from ministry as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Swedesburg in 2011 on
an unrelated allegation of misconduct.
As per archdiocesan policy,
the church’s internal investigation of the 2012 allegation began only after
criminal and civil legal actions against Father McCormick were concluded.
The Archdiocesan Professional
Responsibilities Review Board found the allegation of sexual abuse of a minor
to be substantiated. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput accepted the board’s
recommendation and informed Father McCormick.
The statement said the
priest “will either be laicized or enter into a supervised life of prayer and
penance,” but did not indicate what the next step will be for Father McCormick,
or when it will occur.
Laicization is the church’s
legal, or canonical, process that relieves a priest or deacon from the clerical
state, sometimes referred to as “defrocking,” rendering him a layperson.
The Prayer and Penance Program
houses and supervises priests who voluntarily accept residence after admitting
to sexual abuse of a minor. Currently it includes at least 12 priests, all of
whom have accepted permanent restriction on their priestly ministry.
It has been located on
the campus of Villa St. Joseph, the archdiocesan priests’ retirement home in
Darby since 2005.
That was the year of the
first Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse, followed by a
second report in 2011. The Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual
abuse released Aug. 14 did not include Philadelphia or the Diocese of
Altoona-Johnstown, which a grand jury investigated in 2016. The new report
involved an investigation into claims of clergy sex abuse over a 70-year period
in the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Erie, Allentown, Scranton and
Harrisburg.
In the case of Msgr.
Parlante, 61, it was not sexual misconduct but drugs that introduced him to the
criminal justice system.
He resigned as pastor of
St. Cornelius Parish in Chadds Ford in early spring 2017 and has been on leave
from ministry since then.
By May of that year, a
suspicious package found in his office by rectory staff was confirmed by Pennsylvania
State Police to contain illegal methamphetamine, a highly addictive and
destructive drug.
By January 2018 Msgr.
Parlante was arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts of drug
possession and one felony charge of theft. Police had determined that he
allegedly stole approximately $5,500 from St. Cornelius’ church collections and
used it to buy drugs through the mail.
He entered into a
Delaware County program for first-time offenders in which he was ordered to
perform 64 hours of community service, pay back the $5,500 to St. Cornelius
Parish and complete one year of probation.
Only after the conclusion
of the sentencing did the archdiocese’s investigation into Msgr. Parlante’s
suitability for ministry begin.
The archdiocesan review
board determined that because of Msgr. Parlante’s violation of the archdiocesan
policy on Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries, he is not suitable
for priestly ministry.
According to the
archdiocesan statement, the board was established in 2002 and functions as a
confidential advisory body to the archbishop. Its 12 men and women, both
Catholic and non-Catholic, possess extensive professional experience in
investigation, prosecution, child abuse prevention, victim services and the
treatment of sexual offenders.
The future status of
Msgr. Parlante is undetermined at this time while his public ministry remains
restricted.
While he would not enter
Prayer and Penance because his case does not concern child sexual abuse, he
could seek laicization, though it would not be required of him by the
archdiocese at this time, according to church officials.
A Delaware County official has
recently cited the sale and use of methamphetamine as a growing scourge in the
community. “Meth is becoming the new heroin,” said Upper Darby Police
Superintendent Michael Chitwood in an article in the Delaware County Daily
Times.
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Gambino, director and general
manager of CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia.
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