Grand jury documents detail allegations against priests with local ties

It was around 1975 or so when a 12-year-old boy at Our Lady of Victory in State College claims he was sexually abused by his priest.

Father Robert Kelly was the man of God in question. According to grand jury documents released Tuesday, “Kelly would take the boy to the drive-in movies, drives to the mountains, and spend time with the boy.”

He would also kiss him and touch him and reach into his pants. He would give him beer. He tried to sleep with him. In 1978, another child, then 14, claimed he rebuffed those same advances.

Then Kelly was moved to a Johnstown church for a year. Then he spent about 20 months as the chaplain at Rockview state prison. Then two years at St. Benedict in Johnstown and two more years at St. Joseph’s in Bellwood and Our Lady of Lourdes in Altoona before being brought back to Our Lady of Victory in 1984.

He spent a year here and a few months there, from Altoona to Gallitzin to Lock Haven and even Rome before spending an unknown amount of time in Guest House, a Rochester, Minn., treatment center that works with priests, and St. John Vianney Institute, a Downingtown facility focusing on “self-direction and personal responsibility.”

That was around 1993, just about the time the grand jury said the diocese was taking action on a complaint about Kelly.

According to the documents released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane in her Tuesday press conference, Kelly was found to be “pedophilic” and “sexual,” and was recommended to avoid contact with young people, including altar boys.

After a stint in Charleston and a year in the Office of the Propagation of the Faith in Hollidaysburg, he was returned to work as a parish priest. In 1995, that meant St. Rose of Lima in Altoona.

In 2001, he was sent back to Centre County, where he was placed at Sts. Peter and Paul in Philipsburg. He was there until February 2015 when Bishop Mark Bartchak suspended him.

According to the grand jury, Bartchak had no new information. He had only been bishop a few years, following his predecessor, Bishop Joseph Adamec, who helmed the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese from 1987 to 2011.

“Adamec saw fit to return him to his flock,” the grand jury said.

Kelly’s testimony was quoted in the report. Kelly denied any sexual contact with a minor. He did acknowledge that a sexual assault allegation had been made against him, by a college student over the age of 21, while he was at OLV.

In the testimony, he attributed the allegations to a payday.

“...What I heard afterward was that the diocese provided kind of a lump sum of money,” he said, estimating it was about $20,000.

When questioned during the grand jury proceedings about why the young man would lie, Kelly consulted with his attorney and then asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

It isn’t a story that specifically points to one crime. Kane says it points to a pattern.

“Predator after predator went before the grand jury,” she said.

Each time, the AG said, the witnesses testified that they had never spoken to any law enforcement officers about the issues.

Bartchak did not just remove Kelly in 2015. He also pulled former OLV priest the Rev. Martin Cingle from All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Boswell. He has removed others over the course of his time in office, the most recent just last month.

Cingle was accused of groping a child’s genitals in 1979. It was later reported in 2002 to Adamec, who sent Cingle for treatment and and returned him to duty.

The Rev. Dennis Coleman was the priest at St. John’s in Bellefonte. Bishop James Hogan gave him a list of directions after his 1979 incident with a 10-year-old boy was reported. Step one was “Keep kids out of the rectory.” Another was to discuss the bishop’s “intervention” and Coleman’s “weak human element” with the parents.

On documents from the diocese’s “secret archive,” Hogan said he accepted Coleman’s story and transferred him. More allegations arose.

“In retrospect..., I should have directed professional evaluation and treatment indicated back in 1979... But at the time, he seemed truthful. Nor was there the current climate,” wrote Hogan in 1986.

Bartchak’s actions were more public.

Last year, after removing Kelly, he sent a letter to be read to parishioners. He came and spoke to them. While the diocese is not trumpeting punishments on the website, there are actions being taken.

According to spokesman Tony deGol, the diocese’s youth protection policy calls for the mandatory reporting of all abuse allegations to civil authorities, as well as criminal background checks and education for clergy, employees and volunteers who work with children. The policy is online at www.dioceseaj.org/children-and-youth.

“This is a painful and difficult time in our diocesan church,” said Bartchak in a statement. “I deeply regret any harm that has come to children, and I urge the faithful to join me in praying for the victims of abuse.”

Bartchak was singled out by Kane and the grand jury for his stance on handling abuse, and its difference from his predecessors.

Hogan dismissed a complaint against Martin McCamley, accused of fondling a 16-year-old boy’s genitals in 1981. The grand jury testimony says that McCamley and another named priest, James Bunn, both took advantage of a child victim.

“Faith is not in the priest, it’s in Jesus Christ,” McCamley said in a 2002 Centre Daily Times article about the growing child abuse crisis in the church. “This in no way changes what Jesus Christ said or what Jesus Christ did. It’s the difference between the messenger and the message.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Grand jury documents detail allegations against priests with local ties."