EMPORIA (KS)
KVOE TV
January 26, 2019
By Chuck Samples
The Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City has announced 22 priests have had substantiated allegations of sexually abusing minors over the past 75 years as similar investigations continue in Catholic dioceses across the country.
On the list are two late priests that served Lyon County parishes during their careers. Lambert Dannenfelser, a Franciscan, served Emporia’s Sacred Heart Church from 1969 to 1974. He also served Olpe’s St. Joseph Church. The diocese says there was more than one allegation against Dannenfelser, although it does not specify how many. It also lists his estimated abuse timetable as 1989. Dannenfelser, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, spent time in missions in New Mexico and also served around the Cincinnati area before he died in 2006.
Another Franciscan, Steven Lamping, served at St. Joseph Church in the 1940s and 1950s, according to online archive information. The diocese says his estimated time frame of abuse was the 1950s, and there are multiple allegations of sex abuse against Lamping, who has since died. St. Joseph was his only church assignment, according to information provided by the archdiocese. Additional information about Lamping is not immediately available.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann says “each name on this list represents a grave human tragedy” and that “each name represents a betrayal of trust and a violation of the innocent.” None of the priests on the list are currently in ministry, according to the archdiocese.
The abuse of children by priests has been in headlines periodically since the late 1980s, but the most recent batch of headlines hit last summer when a grand jury in Pennsylvania found that church leaders had covered up abuse by hundreds of priests dating back decades.
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