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Man's Allegations of Abuse by Fostoria Priest Surface after 40 Years

By Lauren Lindstrom and Nicki Gorny
The Blade
November 16, 2018

http://www.toledoblade.com/news/religion/2018/11/16/abuse-allegations-fostoria-priest-reverend-joseph-schmelzer-toledo-diocese-catholic/stories/20181110001

Never mind the drinking, the substance abuse, the difficulty in interpersonal relationships that had intermittently plagued him since he was a teenager.

He’d been to therapy. He thought he’d managed to push down and push away the months of grooming and abuse by the Rev. Joseph Schmelzer, predatory behavior that he says culminated in sexual assault in the rectory of St. Wendelin Parish in 1980.

Then came 2015. Mr. Kinn took a new client for his information technology business — his childhood parish in Fostoria.

Once on site to run new wires for the internet and phone systems, he found himself drawn to the rectory bedroom. The memories flooded back. So did a fierce panic attack. He fled to his truck and took off.

 

 

 

 

 




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