YORK COUNTY (PA)
York Dispatch
March 25, 2019
By Christopher Dornblaser
The child sexual abuse allegation against a former York Catholic teacher and York County priest was deemed not credible, according to a Montana diocesan official.
The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings Chancellor Darren Eultgen told The York Dispatch in February that there was an independent investigation into the allegations against Rev. William Cawley.
Cawley was a York Catholic teacher, and he served at St. Joseph’s Parish in Springettsbury Township from 1988 to 1991 and again from 1993 until 2004.
Eultgen said Cawley was listed in a set of lawsuits against the diocese that allege multiple cases of abuse by dozens of clergy members.
“He had one accusation against him, and that was investigated by an independent investigator, and they did not find anything particularly credible in that,” he said.
Eultgen said Cawley is still with the diocese, but is not in active ministry at any parish. He said Cawley retired within the past five years.
The chancellor said the diocese offered to have the allegations independently investigated, and Cawley agreed to it.
The lawsuit, obtained by The York Dispatch on Friday, March 15, alleged Cawley and another priest physically, sexually, and emotionally abused a boy at the St. Pius X and Holy Rosary schools in Billings, Montana, from 1977 through 1982.
In August, York Catholic said the Diocese of Harrisburg received a report of the lawsuit in 2012, when it was filed, and that Cawley left the diocese that year as a result of the allegations.
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