Category:South Carolina Dioceses

From Eurêka

Diocese of Charleston

Diocese of Charleston Covers all of South Carolina, which is home to an estimated 300,000 Roman Catholics.

Diocese of Charleston abuse Seven priests had been accused of sexual abuse up to January 2003 (NYT survey). The diocese has acknowledged receiving allegations of sexual misconduct against 24 priests since the 1960s, and a dozen have been removed from ministry (April 2003).

(alphabetical listing)

[24 offenders admitted, 19 listed]

Bench affair Bishop Baker planned to move Rev. John Bench to a diocese in Florida, after paying a settlement to the family of a young girl the priest admitted abusing, but the bishop dropped the idea after the family protested. Resigned 1993.

Campbell case Rev. James D. Campbell, a priest in Warwick, R.I., who was an assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s Church, pleaded guilty to rape, two counts of assault and battery, two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unnatural and lascivious acts, admitting he took J.H. and another teenager to a restaurant in Uxbridge c. 1974 and molested them on different occasions, 22 December 2004, sentenced to 90 days in the house of correction, 10 July 2005.

Carpentier affair Rev. Robert A. Carpentier accused of abuse settled 2002.

Castano case Rev. Juan Carlos Castano (1959-), from Colombia on a three-year visiting status at The Oratory in Rock Hill, where he served the Latino community, was charged in with committing a lewd act on a minor for allegedly fondling a 4-year-old girl in her home in September 2000, March 2002. After the incident, the girl told her 10-year-old brother, who promptly told his mother. The victim's family reported the incident in February 2002 after the local parish circulated a questionnaire about how Castano's work among the area's Hispanic Catholics could be improved. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison and two years' probation, 10 April 2003.

Condon case Rev. Eugene Condon was accused of molestation when a man told the FBI that as a teenager in the 1960s he went to Condon for confession after Rev. Seitz abused him. Condon gave him alcohol and tried to molest him too, he said, and years later showed him a trunk full of photographs of naked boys whose pictures had been taken in a church rectory. Condon pleaded guilty to abuse and was sentenced to probation, 1998.

D'Angelo affair Rev. Joseph D'Angelo was accused of abuse settled 2002.

Desrosiers affair Rev. Alfred R. Desrosiers accused of abuse settled 2002.

DuMouchel affair Rev. Raymond DuMouchel was charged with alleged sexual abuse, 2003.

Evatt affair Rev. Thomas Evatt (deceased) accused of abuse of child.

Fischer affair Rev. Edward “Eddie” Fischer was arrested for alleged abuse 1997.

Goodwin case Rev. Justin Goodwin (deceased) was convicted of abusing boys late 1970s.

Hopwood case Rev. Frederick J. Hopwood accused of abuse convicted, 3 years probation, 1994.

Lepire affair Rev. Roland Lepire accused of abuse settled 2002.

Marcantonio affair Rev. Robert A. Marcantonio (d. 1999) was accused in several lawsuits of abusing teenage boys in Rhode Island before 1971. That year, the priest enrolled at Iowa State University in Ames. Former Dubuque Archbishop James Byrne was told of Marcantonio's “problems” but gave his permission for the priest to relocate to the Archdiocese of Dubuque and to function as a priest in Ames while he studied at ISU. Marcantonio was to receive therapy from another priest, the Rev. Bernard Du Val, a former psychiatrist who offered therapy to Dubuque archdiocesan priests. Settled 2002.

Meglio affair Rev. Richard L. Meglio accused of abuse settled 2002.

• See also Nyhan case

Owens-Howard affair Rev. James Robert Owens-Howard was charged for alleged abuse of children.

Ryfinski case Rev. Gerald Ryfinski was convicted of possession of child porn, 2002.

Seitz case Rev. Paul Seitz was accused of molestation by a man who already had provided testimony in the case against the Rev. Eugene Condon. Diocese denied a lawsuit’s allegation that it was employing a “known priest-pedophile,” February 2002. Later, the spokesman acknowledged that an accused priest remained on the job, after having been suspended in the mid-1990s, moved to a smaller parish and ordered not to be alone with children. Seitz resigned, for what the diocese said were unrelated health reasons.