BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Banner [Baltimore MD]
April 12, 2023
By Jasmine Vaughn-Hall
The Catholic High School of Baltimore’s auditorium will no longer be named after Sister Francis Marie Yocum, after allegations against her were included in the Maryland Attorney General’s 456-page report detailing decades of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Yocum was a longtime music teacher at the school and led the glee club and a cappella choir, according to the report. She also wrote the school’s song.
The report includes a 2012 allegation from a 75-year-old victim who said Yocum, a nun from the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia, sexually abused her in 1954 when she was 16 or 17 years old while she was receiving private voice lessons. The abuse took place over the course of a year, the report said. Yocum allegedly treated the victim as a “pet” and was jealous of friends and boyfriends of the victim.
Yocum was not listed on any credibly accused lists.
A statement posted on the school’s Facebook page said “while the school continues to look into the matter, Catholic High’s auditorium will no longer be named after Sr. Francis Marie Yocum.”
The statement noted that the school is committed to the protection and the accountability of those credibly accused of abuse. The school also urged anyone who wants to report abuse to call law enforcement, and if the alleged abuse involves an employee of theirs, to report it to the school at 410-732-7429.
The Banner was unable to reach anyone at the school, which is on Easter break until April 17.
The Attorney General’s report, released last week, shed new light on years of abuse and cover-up, compounding the list of accused priests and other clergy released by the Archdiocese in 2002. New details, for example, surfaced about Father Anthony Joseph Maskell, who engaged in several years’ worth of sex abuse and physical harm of children starting in the late 1960s. His abuses appear in the Netflix documentary series “The Keepers.”
Abusive priests also cycled through different parishes at a rate more common than others. St. Mark had more abusive priests assigned to it over the years than any other — 12 between 1964 and 2000.
jasmine.vaughn@thebaltimorebanner.com