Kiddie porn priest guilty

Tribune Democrat ^ | October 25, 2003 | SANDRA K. REABUCK

[Land of the Irish]

A Roman Catholic priest who formerly was assigned to a South Fork area parish pleaded guilty yesterday to illegally downloading from the Internet obscene materials involving young boys and girls.

The Rev. Elwood R. Figurelle, 70, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Williamsport to one count of receiving child pornography in interstate commerce via the Internet.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, he would face a prison sentence of up to 33 months. His attorney, P. Alan Zulick of Norristown, said he would seek a lesser sentence.

U.S. District Judge Malcolm Muir set a pre-sentence conference for Jan. 22.

Figurelle had downloaded at least 10 images on two computers that had been seized by the FBI through search warrants. The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not release the total number of images involved.

The priest was pastor of St. Michael’s Church from 1979 to 1995 when he was reassigned to St. Catherine of Siena Church in Mount Union, Huntingdon County.

Figurelle went on administrative leave from pastoral service in March. He submitted his resignation from St. Catherine’s after being charged.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Rocktalshel introduced documents showing that Figurelle came to the attention of the FBI after he had taken his computer to a Huntingdon County store for service.

Store employees found the pornographic materials on the computer hard drive and called the FBI. Agents, armed with search warrants, seized that computer as well as one Figurelle had at his residence.

Sister Mary Parks, spokeswoman for Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese, said that Figurelle now is not permitted to function in public as a priest.

“Any further action (against the priest) in compliance with our charter for the protection of children will come after the criminal case is over,” Parks said in a telephone interview from State College.

Figurelle had cooperated with authorities and had signed an agreement after his arrest to enter the guilty plea. Bishop Joseph Adamec, in a statement issued after Figurelle’s resignation, said, “It is truly tragic that sexual and physical abuse of minors continues to occur. It is deplorable when that occurs at the hands of priests within the Roman Catholic Church.”

But, Adamec also pointed out, “As far as we know, there are no victims involved in this case other than those victimized by the Internet itself.”

While assigned to St. Michael’s, Figurelle had been a popular, widely admired priest who installed gardens and statuary that he hoped would attract Christians of all denominations. He remodeled the parish house and added classrooms in the parish hall’s basement for catechism classes.

He grew up in Williamsburg and was ordained in 1963. He has served parishes in West Salisbury, Somerset County; Renovo, Clinton County; and Altoona.

While in Altoona, he taught religious classes at Bishop Guilfoyle High School.

Two priests from the diocese were in court to support Figurelle, and the Rev. Carl A. Spishak of St. Rose Church in Altoona said Figurelle had strong support back in his parish. “I felt a need to support him in this difficult time,” Spishak was quoted by The Associated Press.

©Tribune Democrat 2003

[Land of the Irish]

Another of Adamec's boys' is revealed. I wonder why the bishop has such a problem with his priests?

"Finally, in his random comments column, the bishop of Altoona-Johnstown, Joseph Adamec said "What might be the issues in the Church?" in regard to the new millennium. "Our faithfulness to the Spirit of the Second Vatican Council, or the lack thereof, will continue to be the source of division in the Church, probably even to a greater degree that it has thus far. It will basically be a question of what our gods are. Internal division over nonessentials is a dream for those who wish the Church ill. One of the sources of such division has been the disagreement over minutia involving liturgy and architecture. The archenemy appears to have infiltrated our ranks."

"Clearly, the archenemy for His Excellency, Bishop Adamec, are orthodox Catholics who don’t understand why God is relegated to a closet (side chapel outside the Church proper), why altars are replace with tables, why kneelers are absent from Churches when the rubric for posture is kneeling from the Sanctus to the great Amen, why the Nicene Creed is changed in Masses, why the papal indult Ecclesiae Dei given in Charity by the Holy Father to those who feel a special closeness to the Tridentine Mass is totally ignored in his diocese, why the celebration of homosexuality is publicly proclaimed by priests at Penn State and a clinical psychologist who is allowed to interview our prospective seminarians with no comment from the chancery other than a rebuke of long suffering Catholics who are trying to stem the tide of hedonism overtaking their community with little or no support from the diocesan Church."

Gary L. Morella

[Land of the Irish]

Ping

[dsc]

I wonder if I can get away with expressing discomfort at the Soviet-style "everyone is an informer" implications of this, without having somebody accuse me of trying to excuse kiddy porn.

[pseudo-ignatius]

Fr. Figurelle for Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire? After all, we should be focusing on tolerance and acceptance, right?

[rogator]

"I wonder if I can get away with expressing discomfort at the Soviet-style "everyone is an informer" implications of this, without having somebody accuse me of trying to excuse kiddy porn."

I don't think that you are "trying to excuse kiddy porn" but I think you need to bear in mind that most criminal activity prosecuted is reported to police by informers. If the computer repair folks had discovered evidence of embezellmemt of church funds, should they have reported it?

Kiddy porn has victims, even if limited to the kids in the videos and photos who are victimized repeatedly to make these videos and photos. Their lives are commonly ruined by these crimes, frequently commited by their parents or other relatives for the sake of money or drugs.

I don't consider reporting evidence of serious crime "soviet-style". It's not as if we were talking about reporting someone for not wearing a seatbelt or for littering.

[rogator]

"One of the sources of such division has been the disagreement over minutia involving liturgy and architecture."

An easy solution to this problem for this bishop would be to follow church teaching and tradition. Any one who thinks of what is now going on as "minutia" is blind, deaf, and/or delusional.


"The archenemy appears to have infiltrated our ranks"

He needs to look around the room at his USCCB meetings or perhaps even to look in the mirror.

[Jim Noble]

Fr. Figurelle for Episcopalian Bishop of New Hampshire?

I by no means excuse the church-dividing apostasy of ECUSA. By no means.

But how many gay Roman Catholic bishops are there?

And is their program of spiritual corruption, carried out largely hidden from view, any better than the appointment of Vicki Gene?

[dsc]

"Kiddy porn has victims, even if limited to the kids in the videos and photos who are victimized repeatedly to make these videos and photos."

I agree completely with that, and it makes me sick to my stomach and sick at heart.

However, I also remember reading about a proposed law mandating that computer repair people report anything they found. The implications of that are that if they repaired a computer, didn't report anything, and something was later found, they might be charged for not reporting--even if they didn't find it.

What that implies is that a careful repairman will search every hard disk that comes into his shop looking for evidence of wrongdoing, just to protect himself from being charged with failure to report.

Seems to me that a priest with kiddy porn on his drive would take at least minimal care to keep people from stumbling on it. I mean, he probably didn't have an icon on his desktop reading, "Shortcut to illegal kiddy porn," did he?

So what were the repairmen doing that led to their "stumbling over" these files? Were they using a graphic file viewer to see what was on the disk? Or did they see a directory named, "Kiddy Porn," or a file called "Debby Does Kindergarten?"

I don't like a situation in which people with no probable cause are going on fishing expeditions looking for evidence.

Anybody who wants to can look at anything on my computers any time he wants to. Just ask. If you fall asleep from boredom and hit your head on the keyboard, that's your own lookout. I just don't want to live in a society where people feel entitled to spy. Or worse, feel like they have to to protect themselves.

[dsc]

"And is their program of spiritual corruption, carried out largely hidden from view, any better than the appointment of Vicki Gene?"

Well, yes, because at least we're disciplining those we catch. A Catholic priest couldn't at this point admit that he was packing fudge with a live-in catamite and still be consecrated a bishop.

[rogator]

"However, I also remember reading about a proposed law mandating that computer repair people report anything they found. The implications of that are that if they repaired a computer, didn't report anything, and something was later found, they might be charged for not reporting--even if they didn't find it."

I was not aware of this law and I concur with you that people should not "feel entitled to spy. Or worse, feel like they have to to protect themselves."
I was refering to the responsibility to report serious crime discovered during the normal pursuit of their duties.

[dsc]

"I was refering to the responsibility to report serious crime discovered during the normal pursuit of their duties."

Yeah, if a person just innocently and accidentally stumbles across something, no problem. I was talking about systematic snooping with no probable cause.