He had sex with a minor, according to a 1994 document. He will be suspended, a source said.
philly.com
14 March 2012
By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer
Msgr. Richard T. Powers, 76, was assigned to South Phila.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia plans to suspend a priest nearly two decades after church leaders learned he had sex with a girl, 17, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Msgr. Richard T. Powers, 76, who had served in parishes across the region and was most recently assigned to Epiphany of Our Lord in South Philadelphia, will be placed on administrative leave pending a review, said the source, who asked not to be identified discussing a personnel issue.
Powers’ suspension comes after his name emerged on a newly disclosed 1994 internal church memo that listed 35 area priests suspected or accused of abusing children.
Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua allegedly ordered that memo shredded, but a copy was discovered in a safe in the archdiocese’s Center City offices in 2006 and turned over last month to Philadelphia prosecutors.
They included it in a court filing as part of their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the former aide to the cardinal who drafted the memo and awaits trial on child-endangerment charges.
The memo named Powers in a group of priests described as “guilty of sexual misconduct with minors.”
It said he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in Caracas, Venezuela, “more than five years” earlier, when he was with the Society of St. James, a Boston-based missionary group that sends diocesan priests to South America.
The memo does not explain how church officials learned about Powers’ relationship with the girl, if the monsignor acknowledged it, or if the girl filed a complaint.
It also does not say if archdiocesan administrators took any action against the priest.
Powers was the only priest named in the memo who was still in active ministry.
He could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Messages left at the Epiphany rectory were not returned.
Donna Farrell, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, declined to comment, citing a gag order imposed by the trial judge in Lynn’s case.
In the years after the memo, Powers continued to live and work in area parishes, according to church directories, news clippings, and other records.
He served as pastor at two Philadelphia parishes, Incarnation of Our Lord and St. Veronica’s, and later became pastor at St. Michael the Archangel in Levittown, Bucks County.
Powers was also mentioned in the 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that recommended endangerment charges against Lynn, and child-sex-assault charges against three priests and a former Catholic schoolteacher named Bernard Shero. The report said that, as pastor in Levittown, Powers “went out of his way to intimidate and humiliate a mother who, frustrated with the failure of the school to curb Shero’s inappropriate behavior with children, reported the teacher to police.”
Last week’s Sunday bulletin at Epiphany church named him on the church masthead, but described him as retired.
The bulletin also had a message from the pastor, the Rev. John Pidgeon, reminding parishioners about the importance of forgiveness and noting that the church is full of imperfect people.
“Because the Church is made up of people wounded by fallen human nature, we will until the end of time be in need of reform and renewal,” Pidgeon’s message said.
Powers joins about two dozen archdiocesan priests placed on administrative leave last March so the archdiocese could reexamine past allegations that they abused or acted inappropriately around minors.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has pledged to resolve most of those reviews by early May.
So, this Father Powers, a predatory priest given safe harbour by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, went to bat for Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero. Powers, according to the above article, “went out of his way to intimidate and humiliate a mother who, frustrated with the failure of the school to curb Shero’s inappropriate behavior with children, reported the teacher to police.”
How many other suspect molesters I wonder did Father Powers go to bat for?
On a different note, there is one comment I must make here. This article, as does many another, reports that the cardinal ordered the memo bearing the names of suspect clerical molesters shredded. The impression conveyed is that the damning document was to be wiped out completely with not a trace of the memo remaining on file. That’s not quite the way it was.
It is true that Cardinal Bevilacqua ordered shredding, but it is also true that, according to a memo regarding the shredding, after the shredding a copy of the memo could be obtained “from the office of the clergy.”
I’m not sure what difference it made that a copy of the memo was henceforth to be stored in the Office of the Clergy vs the Office of the Vicar of Administration, but it is clear from the memo that the cardinal intended that one copy of the memo was to remain on file, albeit at a different location. This is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is understanding that Monsignor William Lynn did not, as it may have seemed to all of us, unknown to the Cardinal or anyone else, secreted a copy of the memo.
“I’m not sure what difference it made that a copy of the memo was henceforth to be stored in the Office of the Clergy vs the Office of the Vicar of Administration, but it is clear from the memo that the cardinal intended that one copy of the memo was to remain on file, albeit at a different location.”
Yor comment Sylvia also says to me another thing. That is……..copies and instances of abuse and wrongdoings are still held in secret vaults, filing cabinets, safes etc etc. If this was espionage or big corporate wrongdoings etc, the law would be in with search warrants and agents.
It’s time the Law go in and search these religious and RCchurch vaults worldwide, because this is a worldwide crime against the children of humanity. Therefore…..
1)….The abusers and those who let the abusers continue to abuse, need to be brought to justice….and
2…The abused need counselling, recompense, and hopefully physical and psychological healing. (Spiritual too…although I am hesitant to say this last word)
Yes Mike Mc, it is no secret that there are “secret archives.” Abp. Paul Andre Durocher, the former Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall and now Archbishop of Gatineau-Hull, testified under oath at the Cornwall Public Inquiry that there was no secret arcvive in Cornwall. According to the Code of Canon law howere, there is to be a secret archive in every diocese:
Can. 489 §1 In the diocesan curia there is also to be a secret archive, or at least in the ordinary archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, which is securely closed and bolted and which cannot be removed. In this archive documents which are to be kept under secrecy are to be most carefully guarded.
§2 Each year documents of criminal cases concerning moral matters are to be destroyed whenever the guilty parties have died, or ten years have elapsed since a condemnatory sentence concluded the affair. A short summary of the facts is to be kept, together with the text of the definitive judgement.
Canon 490 §1 Only the Bishop is to have the key of the secret archive.
§2 When the see is vacant, the secret archive or safe is not to be opened except in a case of real necessity, and then by the diocesan Administrator personally.
§3 Documents are not to be removed from the secret archive or safe.