Indiana church defrocks priest who allegedly abused minor, faked assault claim

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

October 14, 2020

By Michael Gryboski

An Indiana priest who garnered headlines in 2018 after he claimed he’d been assaulted in a hate crime and was previously accused of sexually abusing a minor has been defrocked.

An Indiana priest who garnered headlines in 2018 by claiming that he had been assaulted in a hate crime and allegedly sexually abused a minor in the 1980s has been defrocked.

Father Basil John Hutsko of Saint Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in Merrillville claimed back in 2018 that he’d been assaulted by a man shouting “this is for all the little kids.”

In a letter from August that was recently posted online, the Ohio-based Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma confirmed that Hutsko had been removed from ministry.

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