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  Defrocked & Doing Time

The Moultrie Observer [Savannah GA]
December 8, 2004

SAVANNAH — Pope John Paul II recently dismissed former Moultrie priest Father Wayland Yoder Brown from the priesthood after he was jailed last year for child molestation.

Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland received the Vatican’s decree, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The decree stipulates that Brown is dispensed from all obligations connected with sacred ordination. Such decisions cannot be appealed, a release from the Catholic Diocese of Savannah said.

Brown, 61, is serving a 10-year prison term at the Western Correctional Institution, a medium security facility outside of Cumberland, Md., for child sexual molestation and battery against a minor. He pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2002 in connection with offenses that occurred there in the 1970s.

"The victims have carried the hurt and humiliation from these incidents for years," Boland said. "I reiterate that if there are any other victims, I encourage them to come forward."

The bishop said he will continue to pray for the victims of Brown and to pray that Brown "finds forgiveness and reconciliation in his spiritual journey."

Ordained in 1977, Brown served at Holy Trinity Parish in Augusta from 1977 to 1979. Following that he served for six years in hospital chaplaincy in Augusta. He served at Immaculate Parish in Moultrie and its mission, St. John Vianney Parish in Camilla from 1985 to 1986. He was associate pastor of St. James Parish in Savannah from 1987 to 1988.

He was removed from active ministry in July 1988.

Last year, a pre-sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors painted Brown as a serial molester who abused several boys throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Associated Press reported. Brown sexually abused two Maryland brothers, ages 12 and 13, while a student at Washington Theological College in the District of Columbia beginning in 1974, reported the Associated Press. Another victim, who grew up in Georgia and now lives in Oklahoma, testified that Brown abused him on a trip to Disney World in 1978.

Court documents say Brown told one of the victims in a telephone conversation taped by police that he could not remember whether he molested the man as a child because of a mental breakdown suffered in the mid-1980s due to alcohol abuse, AP said.

Prosecutors alleged that Brown was ordained in Georgia despite knowledge that he was not a suitable candidate for priesthood, AP said.

Excerpts from Brown’s personnel file show numerous instances where diocesan officials expressed concern about his dealings with young boys, AP said. The memorandum also alleges the diocese was aware of concerns that Brown may have abused boys as early as 1969. He was ordained in 1977 over the objections of some diocesan staff and was later assigned to a church with an affiliated school, said the article. Personnel records cited by prosecutors show the diocese’s vocations director, who handled personnel issues, recommended to then-Bishop Raymond Lessard in June 1977 that Brown not be ordained.

In 1986, police in Richmond County, Ga., contacted Lessard about allegations that Brown had sexually abused several young boys in Augusta, Ga., AP reported. Lessard sent Brown to St. Luke’s Institute in suburban Washington, a center that treats priests for sexual disorders and other conditions, where Brown spent nine months and was also treated for alcoholism. Police were not told of Brown’s whereabouts, said the article.

Brown has stated he has remained sober and sexually abstinent since returning from St. Luke’s in 1987.

After leaving St. Luke’s, court records show he was assigned to St. James Parish in Savannah as associate pastor, even though the church ran a school.

In May 1988, the school’s principal, Sister Kathleen Gorman, wrote Lessard saying parents had asked that Brown not be allowed around young boys, even at Mass. Parents also complained Brown frequently spoke to their children about his genitalia and took students off the school grounds without informing the front office, AP said.

On July 8, 1988, Lessard removed Brown from St. James and prohibited him from conducting services.

 
 

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