9&10 News Investigates Past Assignments of Accused Diocese of Gaylord Priests

By David Lyden, Jeff Blakeman
Channel 9 & 10
November 15, 2018

https://www.9and10news.com/2018/11/15/910-news-investigates-past-assignments-of-accused-diocese-of-gaylord-priests/

We’re diving deeper into the clergy sex abuse investigation across the state by taking a look at where some of those priests used to work.

We were the first to report that the Diocese of Gaylord had released a list of all the priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct involving minors.

That list includes ten priests but does not include a record of where they spent time.

Father Ronald Gronowski was serving as pastor of parishes in Lake City and Manton when he was removed from the ministry back in 2002.

It came after a 1995 allegation surfaced accusing Gronowski of sexual misconduct back in the 1970’s.

We also know Gronowski spent time in Indian River.

Father Jim Holtz was pastor in Fife Lake and Kalkaska when he was removed from ministry in 2002.

He’s accused of sexually abusing a minor while drunk in the 1980’s.

We also uncovered an old church directory that shed some light on where Father Lionel Harnish spent time. We know he was at St. Aloysius in Fife Lake.

According to his obituary, his first assignment was in Grand Rapids before he was assigned to the Diocese of Gaylord.

We also spoke to Dr. Amelia Siders at the Traverse Bay Child Advocacy Center.

She says seeing and hearing these names can be an important part of the healing process for survivors.

“It’s very common for people to hear a name and all of that to come back to them from the past and they think they might be over it but they could re-experience it again. It could feel like it’s almost happening again because they haven’t really been able to get support and talk about that and heal from that experience,” said Siders.

The attorney general’s office is also investigating clergy sex abuse across the state.