EVANSVILLE (IN)
Courier & Press
Feb. 22, 2019
By Abbey Doyle
One of the 12 men on a list of “credible” allegations of abuse by clergy in the Diocese of Evansville was still active in public ministry until Feb. 19: three days before the list was released to the public.
Jean Vogler was arrested in 1996 in a massive child pornography ring, according to Courier & Press archives. The federal sting nabbed 130 people across 36 states.
Vogler pleaded guilty to receiving pornographic tapes in the mail. He spent about a year in federal prison and underwent psychiatric treatment when he got out.
He was reinstated to the ministry in 1999. At the time, then-Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger told the Courier that Vogler’s case didn’t fall under a zero-tolerance policy because receiving child pornography didn’t constitute direct abuse of a child.
Evansville Diocese spokesman Tim Lilley, when asked about Vogler’s reinstatement even after a federal conviction of possession of child pornography, said Friday “the U.S. Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People did not exist at that time. Following its issuance and subsequent revisions, the Charter recognizes the receipt, possession or distribution of child pornography as constituting sexual abuse of a minor. Keep in mind that, when reinstated, Father Vogler had completed his sentence and been released.
“Since the time of Father Vogler’s conviction, the Church has recognized the tragic availability of child pornography and clarified that child pornography is a form of child sexual abuse, and that a cleric who acquires, possesses or distributes that material is not to be in public ministry; and if that offense occurs from 2010 forward, it may lead to dismissal from the clerical state (laicization) as a penalty,” Lilley continued in his emailed response to questions from the C&P.
Lilley said Vogler was recently removed from public ministry after a more recent study by the Review Board.
“The bishop determined that Father Vogler is not to be in public ministry,” Lilley wrote in the emailed response. “Bishop (Joseph) Siegel made the decision to remove Father Vogler from public ministry on Feb. 19 after the diocese consulted with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection and, as I mentioned, the Diocesan Review Board.”
Post-conviction, Vogler lived next to Memorial High School, at Villa Maria on Lincoln Avenue.
When Vogler was still in active ministry, he “celebrated Masses on weekends when pastors had to be away from their parishes,” Lilley said.
In September, the diocese promised to release the names of priests “credibly” accused of sexually abusing a minor.
In a release to media Friday, the Diocese said they compiled the names previously published in The Message, a newspaper of the Diocese. They also contacted a private investigator to review records dating to its founding in 1944 beginning in early October and ending in mid-December.
In December 2003, the diocese said allegations had been brought against 15 priests. This list names 12.
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