Removed Catholic Priest under Investigation

By Pamela Lehman and Matt Assad
Of The Morning Call
March 13, 2012

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-priest-investigation-20120312,0,3599910.story

A Catholic priest recently removed from his Berks County parish after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman is under investigation in Northampton County for possible criminal conduct with her when she was 17.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the Rev. Cletus Onyegbule used his position of authority at his former parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bethlehem Township, to groom the girl for a sexual relationship with him, District Attorney John Morganelli said.

According to a source close to the investigation, a day after the girl's 18th birthday in February 2006, she consented to sex with Onyegbule while in the rectory office at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

The source said the woman had an abortion in March 2006. County officials have not established the identity of the father, but the source said Onyegbule denied being the father.

Township police confirmed the investigation.

The Diocese of Allentown last week announced that Onyegbule was removed from his assistant pastor position at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Sinking Spring, near Reading.

Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said the woman reported the relationship to the Diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator in December 2011, and it was immediately reported to law enforcement in Northampton and Berks counties.

"In order to avoid interfering with the law enforcement investigations, the diocese has not conducted its own investigation to date," Kerr said in a written statement. "The diocese anticipates doing so after the law enforcement investigations are concluded."

The source said the woman reported the matter to an Our Lady of Perpetual Help priest in 2008 during Confession. But Kerr said if that is true, the priest could not have reported it to diocesan leaders.

"Under canon [church] law, what is called the 'seal of Confession' is inviolable," Kerr said. "It is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to reveal in any way a penitent's confession for any reason."

Morganelli said while there is no evidence that other teens have been involved with Onyegbule, the investigation continues. He said the diocese has cooperated with investigators.

"We believe there may have been inappropriate conduct before she turned 18," Morganelli said. "Whether that rises to the level of criminal conduct is still under investigation."

Onyegbule, 44, was removed from his post at St. Ignatius Loyola Church, where he had served since 2009. He also served as deacon at St. Joseph the Worker Church in South Whitehall Township in 2001, before he was ordained in 2002.

But he spent most of his career as a priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, where word of his removal shocked parishioners. Onyegbule was wildly popular at the parish, not only because of his work teaching religion and soccer to elementary school children, but because of his unusual path to the priesthood.

Despite being a gifted soccer player in Nigeria, his native country, Onyegbule said he turned down a professional sports career to become a priest. But in 1995, while he was in seminary school, his anti-government protests landed him in a Nigerian prison, where he was tortured for 11 days before fleeing to Germany. He eventually fled to the United States, where he spent weeks in an immigration camp before arrival at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County.

He was so popular at St. Joseph that parishioners donated $10,000 to have his family brought to the U.S. for his ordination.

Now investigators are trying to determine whether he should be charged with corrupting a minor.

According to the source close to the investigation:

In December 2011, Northampton County investigators were alerted by Berks County officials that a possible sexual assault had happened in Bethlehem Township.

The woman told police that when she was 16 she was raped by two men in Allentown, and the source said she reported the rape but no charges were filed. Because she was dealing with emotional problems after the rape, when she was 17, she sought spiritual guidance from Onyegbule at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

She said she grew close to Onyegbule. He would take her to school, buy her clothes and took her to a Catholic Youth Conference in 2005. The woman said that while driving back from the conference, she confided in Onyegbule that she had been raped. She said Onyegbule listened to her story and told her he wanted to take her to Nigeria where he had been born.

In December 2005, she said, Onyegbule grabbed her around the waist during a visit at a nursing home.

In January 2006, she said, while they were at a Bethlehem Township restaurant, Onyegbule told her that he wanted to kiss her, but wouldn't because she wasn't yet 18.

He told her he was falling in love with her, but needed to wait until she was 18. The woman said Onyegbule told her he wanted them to be boyfriend and girlfriend and at some point he would like to have sex with her.

After February 2006, the sexual relationship with Onyegbule continued, the woman told investigators, including having sex with Onyegbule at the Bethlehem Township church, a home in Nazareth, at the rectory in Reading, and at hotels in Easton, Allentown and Reading.

The woman said that in 2008, during Confession, she told a priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help that she was having sex with Onyegbule. She said the priest told her to end the relationship.

Kerr said Onyegbule was officially removed March 2, and Bishop John O. Barres announced the removal during the evening Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola the next day.

Since his removal, Onyegbule has been in a Catholic-run treatment facility and is not permitted to function publicly as a priest, he said. Kerr said he did not know what Onyegbule was being treated for.