PITTSBURGH (PA)
Penn Record
January 8, 2019
By Nicholas Malfitano
Reverend William B. Yockey, one of the accused predator priests whose names were listed in a grand jury report that alleges decades of protection for pedophiles working for the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, molested a Connellsville man when he was a teenager, according to new litigation filed in Pittsburgh.
That grand jury report, released in August, alleges there were 301 priests in six dioceses who were allowed by the church to abuse children. Yockey’s name was listed among their ranks. Furthermore, the state Supreme Court recently sided with the requests of additional priests to keep 19 names permanently redacted from the report, over the request of Attorney General Josh Shapiro to make them public.
Besides the instant case, several lawsuits have been filed in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, targeting the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, its Bishop David A. Zubik and Archbishop of Washington and Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, all of Pittsburgh, as defendants.
Richard Bieranowski, a 53-year-old man who now resides in Connellsville, says he was between the ages of 16 and 17 when he was first sexually assaulted by Yockey, a priest who served throughout the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1977 to 1991. His name appears in the grand jury report as a clergy member accused of child abuse.
Yockey is not named as a defendant in the case because Pennsylvania law currently prohibits that from happening – but the suit states should the law be amended, Yockey would be added to the list of defendants.
From October 1978 to June 1983, Yockey was assigned to St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Monroeville, where he served in ministry, as a youth counselor and assisted in mentoring children through the youth group program.
Bieranowski was a member of that program.
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