Investigations ongoing into local priest sex abuse allegations
Investigations are continuing into allegations of sexual abuse lodged against three local priests within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, according to a spokesman.
“The Diocese of Greensburg will communicate to the people of the diocese the results of an investigation into allegations against a diocesan priest when that investigation is completed by law enforcement,” said Jerry Zufelt, spokesman for the Roman diocese. “Any comments about the completion of an investigation are rumors.”
Three priests have been removed from service within the diocese pending investigations into allegations of decades-old abuse. The most recent allegation came in late August, lodged against the Rev. Joseph E. Bonafed, pastor of Holy Family Parish in West Newton and St. Edward Parish in Herminie, in Westmoreland County. One week before that, Monsignor Michael W. Matusak was removed from his roles at St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, St. Mary (Nativity) and St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, in Uniontown, Fayette County. He is accused of touching a girl inappropriately in the 1990s at St. Pius X Church in Mount Pleasant.
In July, the Rev. James W. Clark was removed after the diocese received a report stemming back about 50 years, when he served as a janitor at the former St. James School in Apollo before he entered seminary and before he was ordained as a priest.
The removals came after the state Supreme Court released a grand jury report naming 301 “predator priests” in Pennsylvania dioceses. The report found numerous cases of child abuse had been reported and covered up by church officials in six Roman Catholic dioceses over a 70-year-period. None of the men was named in the grand jury report, though the diocese lists Clark on its website as one of 21 priests with “credible and substantiated allegations” lodged against them.
The Rev. John Bauer, a priest serving in Greene County through the Diocese of Pittsburgh was removed from service in late August. A spokesman for that diocese did not respond to a request for comment regarding the status of the investigation against him.
Bauer served at St. Ann in Waynesburg, St. Hugh in Carmichaels, St. Ignatius of Antioch in Bobtown, Our Lady of Consolation in Nemacolin and St. Thomas in Clarksville. He was named in the nearly 900-page grand jury report issued on Aug. 14, but the diocese did not remove him, noting that he had never been accused of sexually abusing anyone.
The grand jury report indicated in 2013, someone came forward with allegations from the late 1970s and early 1980s, accusing Bauer of giving him alcohol and wrestling with him.
The alleged victim in that case specifically told diocesan officials that Bauer did not sexually abuse him, according to the diocese, and Bauer denied providing alcohol. Diocese Bishop David Zubik said after he read the grand jury report in June, he asked the diocese’s review board to review the case. The board affirmed the decision to keep Bauer in ministry.