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	N.Y. Priest Is Nabbed in Laredo ; He's Accused of Raping a Brooklyn Parishioner By Bonnie Pfister San Antonio Express-News June 22, 2002 LAREDO A Catholic priest accused of raping a parishioner two years ago in his Brooklyn church was arrested here early Friday and flown back to New York City to face criminal charges. Laredo police officers assisted investigators from the Kings County, N.Y., district attorney's office in apprehending Cyricacus Udegbulem, a 39-year-old Nigerian national who lived in a condo in a northern Laredo neighborhood. Udegbulem was arrested at 4:45 a.m. Friday at his home in the 7500 block of Country Club Drive, authorities said. The accused priest secured a chaplain's job at Laredo's Mercy Health Center less than two months after church authorities in Brooklyn stripped him of priestly duties. He had admitted sexual misconduct with a woman who had consulted him for marriage counseling. Mercy spokeswoman Brissa Vela said the hospital employed Udegbulem from March 2000 through August 2001. She declined to explain the conditions surrounding the priest's departure, or what kind of employment checks the health center may have conducted. An e-mail and phone calls Friday to Mercy President Javier Iruegas were not returned. In a prepared statement, Laredo Bishop James Tamayo said Udegbulem wasn't an employee of the Laredo Diocese, although he lived at Christ the King Church and occasionally celebrated Mass. "When Father Cyriacus' employment with Mercy ended, his faculties with the Diocese of Laredo were immediately removed," the statement continued. "As a result, he has had no authority to serve as a priest in the Diocese of Laredo since August 16, 2001." No further comment was available. The Corpus Christi Diocese, which oversaw church activities here until a local diocese was created in August 2000, had no record of Udegbulem's presence in South Texas, Bishop Edmund Carmody said by phone Friday. Mercy's board of directors would not have been required to inform the diocese of its hiring decisions, Carmody said. Udegbulem was expected to arrive at New York's Rikers Island jail Friday night, and he is scheduled for arraignment Monday morning in Brooklyn to answer the 10-count indictment, said Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes. Udegbulem was a priest with the Diocese of Orlu in southern Nigeria, near the city of Port Harcourt, when he applied to work in New York City during summer 1998, Brooklyn Diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa said. Udegbulem began work in Brooklyn after the diocese received a signed affidavit from Orlu's Bishop Ochiaga stating Udegbulem was of good character and reputation, qualified to perform priestly duties, DeRosa said. Udegbulem returned the following summer with a renewed affidavit, and eventually he was granted a three-year ministry at Our Lady of Charity Church in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. On Jan. 10, 2000, a 37-year-old parishioner claimed to diocesan officials that Udegbulem raped and sodomized her nine days earlier, after she sought his counseling regarding annulment. Nearly a week later, under questioning, Udegbulem confessed to church authorities that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior. DeRosa said the priest's faculties were suspended, and his home bishop was informed by letter. Church authorities said they assumed he would return to Nigeria.
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