PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat
BY DAVE SUTOR
DSUTOR@TRIBDEM.COM
Posted on Jul 1, 2015
HOLLIDAYSBURG – A second friar associated with the Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Third Order Regular Franciscans has committed suicide.
Rev. David Kaczmarek, 53, hung himself on Saturday, probably around 6 p.m., according to Blair County Chief Deputy Coroner Paul Kerns. His body was discovered at St. Joseph Friary on Walnut Street in Hollidaysburg on Sunday.
Kaczmarek was reportedly the subject of a legal investigation, per Kerns.
“I don’t know what the deal is with that,” Kerns said.
In January 2014, Brother Stephen Baker is said to have died from a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart, while staying at the province’s St. Bernardine Monastery on Monastery Road in Newry. Baker was accused of sexually molesting possibly more than 100 male students at the former Bishop McCort High School.
Last October, 88 former students received a combined $8 million in compensation as part of a settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Third Order Regular Franciscans and what is now known as Bishop McCort Catholic High School. Other cases are still ongoing.
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