PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Richard Gazarik
Published: Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Vatican has ordered a former Benedictine priest and monk to leave St. Vincent Archabbey near Latrobe and has released him from his monastic vows for spreading false rumors about Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, according to the archabbey.
Mark Gruber has refused to vacate the abbey since June 30, 2012, when the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance outside the abbey and relieved him of his priestly authority to say Mass, hear confession and administer the sacraments.
Gruber is no longer permitted to say he is a priest or to celebrate the sacraments in public, teach and have any contract with minors under the age of 18, according to a news release from the archabbey.
Then Pope Benedict XVI confirmed the ruling, according to the archabbey.
Gruber was an anthropology professor at St. Vincent College until he was relieved of his duties after a state police investigation found photos of naked men on his college-issued computer. A subsequent probe found no evidence of a crime, but Gruber was suspended from teaching and filed a defamation suit against the archabbey. He later dropped the lawsuit without explanation.
“The evidence against Rev. Gruber was judged to be irrefutable,” the archabbey’s news release states. “The Congregation found him guilty of the more grave delict of possession of child pornography, the crime of the production of materials which gravely injure good morals, the abuse of the Sacrament of Confession with the aggravating factor of the manipulation of conscience, and the defamation of a legitimate superior.”
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