CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO 9onyourside
August 2, 2019
By Craig Cheatham
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has placed two priests on administrative leave, which church officials say is the “strongest action” a local bishop can take on his own against a priest.
Parents learned this week of Rev. Geoffrey Drew’s suspension from St. Ignatius School in Green Township, but the WCPO I-Team discovered the existence of a second priest that the Archdiocese had placed on administrative leave by searching the ‘Protecting Our Children’ page on the Archdiocese’s website.
The Archdiocese declined to answer WCPO’s questions about the allegations against Father Clarence Heis. The Archdiocese website only refers to a “pending investigation” of Heis. It also does not indicate when the Archdiocese placed Heis on administrative leave.
“Anytime they go to the extraordinary action of suspending or removing a priest – or anybody in their employment – it means there’s a serious concern,” said Dan Frondorf, the leader of the Cincinnati chapter of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP.
This is the second time the Archdiocese has suspended Father Heis.
It also placed him on leave in 2006 after Heis pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and resisting. A police officer arrested Heis in 2005 for allegedly having sex with two adult men in a public park in Fairborn, near Dayton. The Archdiocese reinstated Heis in 2009, according to The Catholic Telegraph, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Since his reinstatement, Heis has worked out of the main office of the Archdiocese, according to his LinkedIn account and issues of the Official Catholic Directory.
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