PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog
Ralph Cipriano
Father Joseph Okonski had a pained look on his face. The veteran priest was telling a jury how back in 1995, he walked into the bedroom of his rectory roommate, Father Michael Murtha, and discovered a trove of pornographic magazines and videos.
“Certainly, I was disturbed by it,” the priest told the jury Wednesday. The porn was being mailed to the rectory of St. Anselm’s Church in Northeast Philadelphia in plan wrappers. The priest played one video. “It was sado-masochistic male-on-male pornography,” he testified.
The priest reported the porn to the pastor of St. Anselm’s, but he didn’t do anything about it, Father Okonski told the jury. Then, Father Okonski made a second visit to Father Murtha’s bedroom and discovered in a closet a love letter Father Murtha had written to a seventh-grader named Drew.
“Dear Drew,” Father Murtha wrote. “You are so cute … would you like it if I sucked your dick? I bet you would.” In the letter, which was displayed to the jury, Father Murtha told the seventh grader that he wanted to kiss his nipples and spank “his cute ass.” The priest told the seventh-grader that if he decided to take the priest up on his offer of fellatio, he should leave a letter behind the bulletin board where the parish school advertised the student of the week.
The letter from the archdiocese priest was signed, your “secret lover.”
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