Survivors Want Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo to Name Priests Accused of Abuse

By Emily Monacelli
M Live Media
March 14, 2019

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2019/03/survivors-want-catholic-diocese-of-kalamazoo-to-name-priests-accused-of-abuse.html

A support group for men and women abused by members of the Roman Catholic Church has called on the Diocese of Kalamazoo to publicly list the former Kalamazoo-area priests who have credible allegations against them.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests on Thursday, March 14, called for Diocese of Kalamazoo Bishop Paul Bradley to post the names of all church staff accused of molesting children on the websites of Kalamazoo churches. The post should include photos and work histories, SNAP said.

David Clohessy, director of SNAP Network’s St. Louis chapter, said he has found six priests who have worked in the Kalamazoo area and have been publicly accused of sex abuse.

“For the most part, they worked most of their career somewhere else, they molested somewhere else, they were publicly exposed somewhere else, they were criminally charged somewhere else, or they were civilly sued somewhere else or they were suspended by a bishop somewhere else but they all spent time in this diocese,” Clohessy said. “They could have molested a Kalamazoo-area child. They could still be in Kalamazoo or come back to visit families they befriended when they were here.”

Clohessy said about half of the bishops in America have now posted lists on their websites of priests who have been credibly accused of sex abuse. He said the lists, though, are never comprehensive.

Clohessy also had a message for survivors of sex abuse. He asked them to come forward and get help.

“If you were hurt by a member of the clergy in any way, we would beg you to find the courage and strength to break your silence and tell someone you love and trust,” Clohessy said.

Ann Phillips Browning, who was allegedly abused by the Rev. Jacob Vellian at St. John’s Catholic Church in Benton Harbor in the 1970s, has since returned to the Catholic Church and said she has become a “watchdog.”

Vellian and another cleric with the Catholic church, the Rev. Leroy White, were also named by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests as members the diocese should list publicly as alleged abusers.

Browning said she has reported her abuse to police and has spoken to the Michigan Attorney General’s office as part of their investigation into sex abuse by clergy in Michigan.

Browning said she left the church for 30 years but has since healed and especially benefited from a trauma recovery program run through the Kalamazoo diocese. She said she went back to the church nine years ago and the first thing she did was to ask the bishop to publish a list of abusers who had worked in the diocese on the diocese’s website.

She said she has asked the bishop to publish a list several times but he has declined to do so.

“There’s going to be a lot of survivors out there, like myself, who took a long time to step forward, or who haven’t stepped forward," Browning said. "Once they see that someone’s already been reported they’re going to feel more free to come out and say, ‘me too.’”

The Diocese of Kalamazoo released a statement saying it is committed to promote greater protection of all people.

“The Diocese of Kalamazoo remains steadfast in its commitment to promote greater protection and safeguards of all people, particularly for children and vulnerable adults. The gathering of members of SNAP today outside the Diocesan Pastoral Center provides the opportunity to affirm our care for all survivors of abuse and our work toward healing.

“Information on clergy highlighted by SNAP today has been publicly available for years and, in most cases, reported on by the media. As we stated previously, the Diocese has and will continue to cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation and encourages anyone with information related to misconduct to call the reporting number set-up by the Attorney General’s office at: (844) 324-3374.”

SNAP’s list of priests who have served in the Kalamazoo area and who have been credibly accused includes:

The Rev. Gregory Poser, who worked at three Kalamazoo diocesan churches in the 1970s – Immaculate Conception in Three Rivers, St. Joseph in White Pigeon and St. Clare in Centreville. Poser was suspended from ministry in 2016 after the diocese received a report that he sexually abused a child in the 1970s in Minnesota.

The Rev. Thomas DeVita, who was removed from duty in 2002 while working at St. Mary’s of the Lake parish in New Buffalo. He confessed publicly in 1998 to having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old in New York in 1978. The boy’s mother won a $50,000 settlement in 1993 from the church after learning the priest was still practicing.

The Rev. Michael Howard Weston, who worked as a chaplain for Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He was credibly accused in a report by the Chicago archdiocese in 2006. He resigned in 1993 and was defrocked in 2009.

The Rev. Richard Ohlemacher, who worked at Immaculate Conception Church in Three Rivers from 1976 to 1979. In 2012, the Phoenix diocese identified him as one of several clerics who had been “laicized and/or removed from ministry due to sexual misconduct with a minor.”

The Rev. Leonard Bogdan, who retired from the Kalamazoo diocese in 2000. Bogdan was first publicly identified as an alleged abuser in a 2006 Chicago archdiocesean report. He had his priestly faculties removed in 2002.

The Rev. Carl Anthony Peltz, who was incardinated into the Kalamazoo diocese in 1990. According to his obituary, Peltz served as pastor at several Kalamazoo-area parishes, including St. Ambrose Parish in Delton, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Niles and St. Anthony Parish in Buchanan. He also served as administrator for St. Ambrose Parish in Parchment, and as a pastor at St. Joseph Parish in St. Joseph and St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Portage. Peltz was sued in 1991 by parents of a boy who said Peltz raped him while serving as a U.S. Navy chaplain in Iceland. The suit was settled by the Steubenville, Ohio, diocese for $25,000. A Kalamazoo-area Catholic sexual abuse review panel found no “credible evidence” to the claim, the Rev. James Murray, then-bishop of the Kalamazoo diocese, said in 2003.