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Post-Standard
By John O’Brien | jobrien@syracuse.com
on October 02, 2014
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A child-molesting accusation against a Catholic monsignor and former Bishop Ludden High School principal is credible, the Vatican notified the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese today.
The Syracuse Diocese in April removed Monsignor Charles Eckermann from ministry after determining the recently disclosed accusation from a former altar boy from 25 years ago to be credible, a diocese official confirmed today.
The Vatican upheld that finding today, said Danielle Cummings, a spokeswoman for the diocese.
“Charles Eckermann will no longer be able to function as a priest, wear clerical garb or be presented as a priest,” she said of Eckermann, who also served as Syracuse’s school board president decades ago.
The victim, Kevin Braney, said Eckermann raped him more than a dozen times in a basement storage room in the rectory at St. Ann’s Church in Manlius in 1988 and 1989, when Braney was 15 and 16 years old.
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