SOUTH DAKOTA
Press and Dakotan
By Randy Dockendorf randy.dockendorf@yankton.ne
A priest serving two Bon Homme County parishes has been placed on administrative leave.
Bishop Paul Swain of the Diocese of Sioux Falls has taken the action following a sex-abuse allegation against the Rev. Joe Forcelle, who serves St. Leo Parish in Tyndall and St. Vincent Parish in Springfield.
Swain addressed the allegation, which Forcelle denies, in a written statement.
“The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has informed me of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by Reverend Joseph T. Forcelle when he served in the Archdiocese,” Swain wrote.
“The child sexual abuse allegedly took place in the late-1970s and early-1980s when Father Forcelle was serving as a priest at Saint Mark Parish in Saint Paul, MN. The archdiocese reported this allegation to civil authorities.”
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