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  2 Priests with Midstate Ties Defrocked

By Mary Warner
The Patriot-News [Harrisburg PA]
June 30, 2006

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?
/base/news/1151635227197330.xml&coll=1

Two former midstate priests have been defrocked by the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Harrisburg has reported.

John G. Allen, a former priest of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Roman Catholic Church in Penbrook, has been defrocked, four years after he was permanently removed from ministry because of reported sexual abuse.

"John G. Allen's request for laicization has been granted" by the Vatican, the Diocese of Harrisburg reported in the latest edition of its weekly paper, "The Catholic Witness."

Allen resigned in April 2002, at the height of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal, after being confronted by what the diocese called a credible report of misconduct with an adolescent at least 23 years earlier.

The paper also reported that David M. Luck had been defrocked. He was a priest at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Mechanicsburg 18 years ago when he was removed from all ministry because of a similar report involving a minor, the diocese said.

It said the abuse occurred when he was a deacon at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Annville.

There has been no formal action by the Vatican in the case of the Rev. Joseph Pease, who has been barred from active ministry since December 2002, when he was pastor of Divine Redeemer Church in Mount Carmel.

In the wake of news reports that the diocese had received a credible allegation of his "inappropriate sexual contact" with an adolescent 30 years earlier, two other men told police they had been abused as adolescents by Pease.

MARY WARNER: 255-8267 or mwarner@patriot-news.com

 
 

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