New sex-abuse bombshell: Time bishop [Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown] comes clean

Officials of Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese have known of at least 10 priests implicated in sex abuse cases involving hundreds of young boys, according to public records reviewed by the Tribune-Democrat.

But the offenders remained in the priesthood, and the diocese meted out such mild punishments as transfers, therapy or “rest and recreation.”

Only one offender was defrocked Francis Luddy and that came only after a trial and a $2 million-plus assessment against the Church.

But Joseph Adamec, bishop since 1987, has consistently denied a widespread problem, calling the Luddy trial “an isolated case.”

In the meantime, testimony about rampant pedophilia was being whispered privately to Blair County Jude Hiram Carpenter behind closed doors.

Records also show that police knew of the sex scandals but discussed them discreetly with diocese officials instead of making arrests.

This is the portrait of the Altoona-Johnstown diocese that emerges from an examination of court documents in the 1994 sex abuse trial of now-defrocked Luddy.

The trial is of significance in the context of the national church sex scandal and the disciplinary actions against priests now mandated by the new national bishops’ policy adopted June 15 at its historic meeting in Dallas.

Although the Luddy trial made daily headlines, not all was told in the public courtroom.

But closed-door meetings are part of the public record, which the Tribune-Democrat recently reviewed.

These are some cases, discussed either publicly or privately in judge’s chambers, or both:

*James Skupien, priest and principal of Bishop Guilfoyle High-School in Altoona, was caught naked in his car with a young man. He remained at the school and since has died.

*Dennis Coleman, a priest in Bellefonte, was hypnotizing boys, removing their shoes and rubbing his penis on their feet. He was told to get some “rest and recreation” and was transferred to St. Benedicts Church in Geistown. He was suspended after Hogan retired in 1987.

The father of one of Coleman’s victims was a state trooper, who threatened to shoot Coleman, records show, but criminal charges weren’t filed.

*Thomas Carroll, a priest in Altoona, abused boys and was sent to a psychiatrist, but remained a priest until he died in 1988.

*Joseph Gaborek, a priest in Somerset County, fondled boys in 1984. State police reported it to Hogan, but charges were never filed. Hogan told Gaborek to “keep his big mouth shut.”

*William Kovach, a priest in Revloc, molested a boy in 1982. He showed the boy pornographic movies, fondled him and performed oral sex. The parents wanted confidentiality, say court records. Kovach remained a priest and since has retired.

The trial records contain references to Francis McCaa, an Ebensburg priest whose sexual molestation of altar boys led to a private financial settlement, and another unnamed priest with a similar settlement. Both are now retired.

After the trial, Joseph Strittmatter, a retired Altoona priest, was sued by a woman who contends he molested her from the ages of 6 to 14.

Luddy, the defendant in the trial, was found to have sexually molested boys and later defrocked.

Even now, Adamec says he is investigating two new complaints and that, under the terms of the new national bishops’ policy, he must remove or otherwise punish at least one or two more priests.

Such an admission breaks the diocese’s tradition of shrouding scandals with secrecy, as the Luddy trial shows.

Three months later, the jury found Luddy guilty of sexual abuse and the diocese negligent for ignoring accusations of sexual abuse.

Msgr. Phillip P. Saylor did, and that’s why the diocese didn’t want him to testify publicly, diocese attorneys told Carpenter.

During a private session March 18, 1994, in Carpenter’s office, the record shows that the diocese tried to block Saylor’s testimony.

Saylor, former pastor at St. John Gualbert Cathedral in Johnstown and editor of the Catholic Register newspaper for 11 years, was a high-ranking diocese official.

The diocese attorney told the judge he was worried about Saylor testifying because one priest was threatening to commit suicide. Saylor had been called to testify in the cases of Coleman, Carroll and Skupien.

The diocese attorney said that the Coleman case “involved two or three boys who were allegedly hypnotized by Father Coleman, and there was some masturbation, or something going on.”

The diocese attorney told the judge that Hogan removed the priest and “told him to take a little sabbatical, a little R and R., and he came back to the parish in October.”

Carroll had been sent to a psychiatrist for his misconduct, the diocese attorney told the judge.

In 1981, Dean Township police Officer David Metzgar found Skupien and a juvenile undressed in a car. Skupien continued to act as a principal and a priest, the attorney said.

The diocese told the judge that Skupien had an alcohol problem, and that is why he was removed from the school.

“Father Skupien is a homosexual and is now attempting to not be an active homosexual because he knows if he does he’s going to be removed. He does not involve himself with pedophiles,” the diocese attorney said.

The diocese wanted all of Saylor’s testimony kept in chambers with a “calm, little hearing” instead of “exposing a lot of people’s names” to the jury.

The judge called Saylor into his chambers and questioned him about the Skupien case.

Saylor said that Blair County Sheriff Larry Field, a personal friend, was a photographer in 1981 when the incident occurred.

“He (Field) indicated to me that the policeman in Dean Township had observed a car down in the woods up on Wopsononock Mountain, and that this policeman discovered that the people in the car were unclothed,” Saylor told the judge.

“And when he called in the license number, the license number was registered to the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown,” he testified in the closed-door hearing.

Saylor said he met with Metzgar, who verified that the car occupants were Skupien and a young man the officer was familiar with from another case.

“I went to Bishop Hogan and told him about it and he asked me if I thought that policeman was a Catholic, and I said no, he was not. And that the policeman was very reluctant to come forward, and he asked me if I could persuade him (the officer) to come see him, so I contacted him (the officer) again and he agreed that he would go to see the bishop.

“So then the bishop asked me to ask him if he would come in on a holy day when nobody else was in the chancery, so they wouldn’t see the policeman coming in.”

Saylor told the judge that Hogan talked to Skupien and then told Saylor “there was nothing to it because Father Skupien explained the situation and the explanation was this:

“He was on a farm up on the mountain with this boy and he was riding a tractor and the tractor upset and he fell into a pond of water.

“And when the policeman came along he was just simply changing his clothes, because the clothes were wet and I remember saying to the bishop you know, then why was the boy changing his clothes, you know. Uh, well, maybe he fell in the pond, too.

“I can remember saying to the bishop, I said bishop, you can’t be serious.”

The judge suggested bringing in the Dean Township officer, but the attorneys said he was a reluctant witness.

“He’s out of state and he informed me yesterday that it was still something he didn’t want to come forward on and be the one to nail a priest,” said the attorney.

(When contacted for this article, Metzgar, now a constable in Blair County, said he was not subpoenaed in the Luddy trial. He confirmed that he told the diocese about the Skupien incident.

The diocese attorney challenged the testimony, saying there was no proof that the boy was a minor.

Saylor also told about Coleman and Carroll, saying parents complained about molestation.

Saylor said he sent Carroll to a psychiatrist when complaints were made about him.

Saylor also recounted police surveillance done by former Altoona police Chief Peter Starr, who developed a list of priests observed picking up young boys near 14th Street. (When contacted for this story, Starr deferred to the court record and said he had no additional comment.)

Saylor told of four boys who were molested in a basement in Altoona, and how the diocese warned a priest to leave the state that night and then allowed him to come back and stay in the diocese.

Hogan testified that state police contacted him about one priest, and that an unnamed Logan Township police officer, and brother of a top-ranking monsignor, contacted him about another.

He said he got help for the priests and kept notes on their misconduct, using a series of dots instead of words in some sentences.

He read one note on court: “Father would engage in immoral familiarity, for example, double beds were never used. Car or basement. Expose and fondle. He with the lad asking the lad to ….”

The diocese is appealing the $1 million in punitive damages awarded by the jury.

Carpenter upheld the punitive award, saying it represented just “four months’ profit” for the diocese.

Even where sexual molestation was not proven in the criminal sense, the diocese either admitted that it occurred or did not deny that it occurred, the judge said.

That’s why, he said, the diocese could not argue against the punitive verdict “with a straight face.”

Diocese officials did not return phone calls requesting comment on the Luddy trial.

George Foster, a conservative Catholic leader and an Altoona businessman who is also a critic of Adamec, said a retrospective of the Luddy trial shows the deception that has taken place.

“Catholics in this diocese were led to believe that the Luddy case was an isolated incident. We were deceived. As a Catholic, we should never have gone to court. The fact that we scandalized our diocese when we were wrong is beyond comprehension.”

Foster said he was shocked at the number of priests mentioned in the court documents.

I think your points are spot on, livius. It is an apocalyptic time for us when we see so much corruption and evil in the very Church we love with all our hearts.

We are striving against the demon, and we need to be armed with all the tools God has given us in order to withstand and overcome the onslaught of the evil one.

We need to go to confession frequently. We need to assist at Mass anywhere and anyway we can. We need to commit ourselves to daily rosary and/or the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy. We need to step up and give ourselves to corporate works of mercy.

Immediately we need to start saying the "St. Michael the Archangel" prayer at the end of every Mass everywhere in our country. We must do it.

This is of course what our bishops should have said in Dallas but they didn't ask this Irish mom to advise them.

"How the hell is the hospital supposed to run an effective criminal background check on their chaplains ..."

As a practical matter, polycarp, this is indeed very difficult, particularly since it seems to be standard practice to assign a (possibly criminally or civilly liable) priest to a chaplaincy, either in a prison, old age home, or hospital.

Needless to say, this interferes not at all with their illicit activities. But it sure means that they are (a) useless as chaplains and (b) a possible source of liability for the institutions to which they have been assigned. I'd check them out really carefully, and then make it very clear, in writing and fully documented, that you had consulted the bishop and he had provided you with (written) authentication of this priest's suitability for the job. You might talk to your hospital's legal counsel about this.

One of the worst priests I ever knew, whose predilection was, believe it or not, women, was assigned as a chaplain to a special prison ward on Riker's Island (NY) for transvestites and homosexuals. This was supposed to keep him out of trouble, but I always suspected that he was probably carrying on there, too, since I didn't think he was particular about his sex objects. But I also knew that he pursued any female who crossed his threshold: a prisoner's sister, mother, even wife (oddly enough, some of them had wives). I'm sure lawsuits are even now surfacing about this guy.

It's a terrible thing to say, but from what I've seen, if priests are assigned as chaplains, it's because there's a problem. Sometimes it can actually be that they are too conservative and bishops or superiors don't like them (Fr. Fessio and Fr. Buckley). But if they're just ordinary guys who suddenly turn up as chaplains, I'd look at them very closely.

Immediately we need to start saying the "St. Michael the Archangel" prayer at the end of every Mass everywhere in our country. We must do it.

I LIKE St. Michael! Have you noticed how angels have been so 'feminized' in the last 20 years? In the Bible, whenever an angel appears, what are his first words? FEAR NOT! Well I don't think he'd have to say that if he looked like some of the Victorian confections we see all over the place at Christmas. They may have their place in interior design, but not in the realm of the truly spiritual. The Archangels are there especially as WARRIORS, and we need to ask for their help as much as possible, because we are truly in a battle with the Devil for the Soul of the Church and all her people.

I tend to agree with your Babylon analogy. We DO have another Babylon in the United States, period. Not just with priests. But with abortions, euthenasia, sex before marriage, living together rather than seeking the Sacrament of Matriomony, sexual indoctrination in the schools...............................and I could go on and on.

Prayer break for me:

For the Pope, the Bishops and the Cardinals, for America: (Please pray with me.)

PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of Battle; Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen

Most people in the area knew most of these cases. They didn't hit the news but a lot of local Catholics stayed away from church or stopped giving to the church because of it.

Adamec was greatly despised by most.

These things were rarely mentioned in the local Catholic paper, but that paper made sure to criticize Rosary groups, novenas, pilgrimages, ignored the Charismatic movement, and praised the enneagram, while allowing PC nuns to teach liberal catholicism to the Confirmation classes.

I'm all for exposing this rot and getting them out of the Church, but it does seem the media is only interested in "outing" homosexual ephebophiles who are errant Catholic clergymen.

Why we are not seeing media coverage of the identities, denominational affiliation, and professional employment of other homosexuals having sex with teenage boys is...well...just a coincidence? [irony alert]

Isn't Adamac the one who had the High Altar of a church distroyed with jackhammers and tossed into the garbage?

Yes.

Part of an altar removed from St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Northern Cambria lies in a dumpster.

Call it a new Inquisition if you will, but that's what I think is needed now. Strip away the hiding places of the Evil One, who has crawled in and is nesting in the most sacred places of the Church.

Sorry to sound so apocalyptic, but I am becoming more and more convinced that this is simply about sheer evil.

It's interesting to recall that a number of years back, the priest who holds the office of primary exorcist submitted a report to the top level of the Vatican which asserted outright satanism at the highest levels within the Vatican. It got hushed up later.

Still, one can scarcely see such widespread public immorality within an institution without suspecting those at the top. And recall that Episcopal scandal (New York?) where they staged lurid orgies in vestal garments on their altars, apparently the blasphemy of the acts goaded them to greater perversity.

There are plenty of sex scandals in all the churches. The general suspicion which will likely be transferred to all clergy, not merely those of the Roman church, should make us all think twice about how the secular media will use this to create suspicion and distrust of the legitimate churches of the ancient Christian faith.

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