LIST of Credible Allegations against Clergy

By Kate O'Rourke
WFIE TV
February 22, 2019

http://www.14news.com/2019/02/23/list-credible-allegations-against-clergy/

The list is not just the names. It also includes more details about the allegations and timelines for which churches and in which schools these priests worked.

From this list we were able to do more of our own research and piece together a better narrative surrounding the priests’ allegations. Among the accused is Mark Kurzendoerfer.

He admitted to two of four credible allegations. The first dates back to the year he was ordained.

He was accused of an improper physical relationship with a 14-year-old boy. On Thursday, we sat down exclusively with priest abuse survivor Ken Meyer.

While he was abused as a teenager in St. Louis, he and his family were long-time parishioners at Holy Angles Church in New Harmony. Kurzendoerfer was their priest for nine years.

He noted that many of these names have been brought to the public since 2002.

“And I know that the committee that’s looking at the credibility of the accusations is working hard on trying to come up with a list of people who have been credibly accused. And that word credibly is really important. To come up with an accusation is easy but to have some credibility takes some effort,” says Meyer.

The Diocesan Review Board is made up of six parishioners and one priest. We have tried contacting them in the past but did not get any comment.

Again today after we got the list we reached out to each board member and have not heard back. Meyer has also encountered more than a handful of other priests who turned out to be alleged abusers.

Some of them are on this list. He says he and his family did not know about it until years later.

“Some of these priests that we’ve read about over the years of being credibly accused I’ve worked with, I’m friends with, and it’s a difficult subject,” says Meyer.

Meyer recognizes five priests on the list. He is traveled with John Breidenbach and Wilfred Englert.

Breidenbach admitted to one credible allegation. Englert was convicted of sexual battery and served a prison sentence. Meyer knew Richard Wildeman through Boy Scouts years ago. Wildeman admitted to his one credible allegation.

Meyer was at a mass in New Harmony five years ago held by Jean Vogler. Even though nearly twenty years earlier, Vogler pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, he was still in public ministry until Tuesday.

“It’s not fun to finally decide that this is wrong and that it’s going on and that its part of the culture of the Catholic Church. It’s not an easy decision to come out and speak like this,” says Meyer.

Meyer met with Bishop Siegel in September. He told him about being abused by a priest as a teenager in St. Louis.

“And I told him about how I was affected as a parent when we had one of the credibly abused priests as our pastor in New Harmony for 9 years, and about Bishop Gettlefinger’s knowledge,” says Meyer.

He is referring to the fifth priest on this list he knows: Mark Kurzendoerfer.

“Bishop Gettlefinger admits that he knew about that in 1990 when he became Bishop. That priest was in New Harmony, all alone, free access to a parish house from 1986 until 1995, 9 years,” says Meyer.

Kurzendoerfer was the priest at Holy Angels Church while Meyer's sons grew up. The priest went away for treatment and was reassigned to other churches within the Diocese.

“We never heard an apology until 2002 when the lid began to blow off. Only then did they start apologizing. The wind’s pretty hallow to hear an apology now knowing that they knew it all the time. They weren’t sorry then. They weren’t sorry in 1960. But now they’re sorry. The only difference is people know about this,” says Meyer.

Meyer wrote to Bishop Siegel today to thank him for the list. The Bishop responded thanking Meyer for his note.