VIRGINIA
WAVY

[with video]

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Catholic Church child abuse scandal unfolding in Pennsylvania has ties to Hampton Roads and other areas in Virginia, according to investigators.

Three ex-leaders of a Franciscan religious order were charged Tuesday with allowing a friar who was a known sexual predator to take on jobs, including a position as a high school athletic trainer, that enabled him to molest more than 100 children.

Giles Schinelli, 73; Robert D’Aversa, 69; and Anthony M. Criscitelli, 61, were successively the provincial ministers of a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in western Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2010. In that role, each assigned and supervised the order’s members.