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	Laredo Hospital Checked Priest ; How He Was Hired after N.y.charges Is Unexplained By Bonnie Pfister San Antonio Express-News June 28, 2002 LAREDO Officials at a Catholic hospital would neither confirm nor deny news reports that a priest charged with raping a parishioner in New York was fired for groping women while employed by the hospital. A spokeswoman for Mercy Hospital said Thursday that the priest, Father Cyriacus Udegbulem, was not fired but quit his job as a hospital chaplain. Udegbulem, who worked for Mercy Health Center from March 2000 to August 2001, resigned to pursue a master's degree in psychology, Mercy spokeswoman Gwen Loera said. Loera said she did not know if Udegbulem had been accused of sexually assaulting women while employed at Mercy. Loera said she would not release that information if she did know. Udegbulem was arrested by New York City Police officers in his north Laredo home on June 21 for allegedly raping and sodomizing a parishioner in 2000 at the Brooklyn church where he then worked. Quoting an unnamed New York law enforcement official, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Udegbulem lost his faculties as a priest in Laredo "because of complaints he had groped women there." The Brooklyn District Attorney's office declined to confirm that assertion to the San Antonio Express-News. Brooklyn Diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa said Udegbulem, who was on a three-year visiting term of duty, confessed to raping and sodomizing a parishioner who had sought marriage counseling. DeRosa said his diocese sent a letter to Udegbulem's bishop in Orlu, Nigeria, explaining why the priest's job was terminated, and did not know he was still in the United States. Udegbulem was hired at Mercy just two months after the Diocese of Brooklyn stripped the Nigeria-based priest of his duties. Loera said Udegbulem was hired after the "usual background checks" conducted on any prospective staffer, as well as checks that would have been "adequate" to cover the vocational background of a priest. "They resulted only in positive comments," Loera said. "As a matter of policy Mercy Health Center does not release detailed information on any employee," Loera said. "Additional questions are out." The Diocese of Laredo declined yet again to answer questions regarding Udegbulem's relationship with the diocese and how he came to function as a priest in Laredo despite his background. Diocesan spokesman Bennett McBride said that because the Laredo Diocese was not created until August 2000, local Catholic authorities do not know how Udegbulem was able to work here as a priest. Udegbulem lived at Christ the King Church in Laredo for a time and sometimes celebrated Mass there. Officials there referred all questions to McBride. McBride said he did not know who the Laredo vicar, or local administrator, was in March 2000, and requested that questions be made in writing so that Bishop James Tamayo could review them. "This is turning into an interview. I'm not granting interviews," McBride said. "You're asking too many questions for me to answer over the phone and you know it." In a statement issued June 21, Tamayo said Udegbulem was never employed by or assigned to the Laredo Diocese, although the bishop removed Udegbulem's "faculties," or permission to carry out priestly duties, on Aug. 16, 2001, "when his employment with Mercy ended." Whether any South Texas bishop ever issued those faculties in the first place remains unanswered. Bishop Edmund Carmody of Corpus Christi, whose diocese included Laredo at the time, said he has no record that Udegbulem sought such permission. Generally speaking, a diocesan priest will carry a celebret, or permission to say Mass, which sometimes includes a photo and physical description such as a driver's license, said Brother Ed Loch, an archivist with the Archdiocese of San Antonio. He probably wouldn't carry around his proof of ordination, Loch said, but a priest who belonged to one diocese who was attempting to work at another would be asked to present an affidavit from his home bishop certifying his good character and ability to carry out his religious duties. Udegbulem was being held Thursday at New York's Rikers Island jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.
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