PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 20, 2012
SMETHPORT, Pa. — A bishop says a suspended Catholic priest convicted of a felony for his inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old boy will not return to active ministry.
Erie Bishop Donald Trautman tells the Bradford Era (http://bit.ly/A7ATW3 ) that the Rev. Samuel Slocum’s conviction on Wednesday in McKean County is a “tragedy for everyone concerned.”
Jurors convicted the 60-year-old priest of concealment of the whereabouts of a child. Prosecutors say Slocum continued to contact the boy and urge him to lie about their relationship to his mother even after she told the priest to stop contacting her son. Slocum was not charged with sex crimes, though prosecutors contend some of the priest’s messages to the boy were flirtatious.
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