ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 30, 2018
By Erin Heffernan
A Roman Catholic priest twice accused of misconduct involving children will no longer be assigned to a new St. Louis parish following an outpouring of concern from parents, officials with the Archdiocese of St. Louis announced Wednesday.
The Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang had recently been appointed associate pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish, which is in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood and includes a K-8 school.
The priest was previously charged with statutory sodomy in St. Louis and child endangerment in a Lincoln County case, but charges in both were dropped several years ago. Jiang denied the allegations, and a jury sided with him last year in a civil suit tied to the Lincoln County case.
Still, parents voiced concerns to church leaders about the appointment, including speaking out in the Post-Dispatch and other media. Parents were told Archbishop Robert Carlson and St. Gabriel’s pastor Msgr. John Shamleffer would take questions about the appointment at a parish meeting Thursday.
But on Wednesday, Shamleffer and Carlson both issued letters on the St. Gabriel’s website announcing that the meeting was cancelled and Jiang was no longer assigned to the parish.
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