ERIE (PA)
Erie Times-News [Erie PA]
January 18, 2024
By Ed Palattella
Diocese puts Monsignor John Hagerty, headmaster at Cathedral Prep in 1984-89, on list of those “under investigation.” Hagerty died at 83 in 2013.
- Under the leadership of Bishop Lawrence T. Persico, Catholic Diocese of Erie created its Public Disclosure List in 2018
- Document includes clergy and laypeople found to have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse or under investigation for claims of abuse
- Diocese updates list regularly, and late Cathedral Prep headmaster, late Mercyhurst Prep faculty member are newly categorized as “under investigation”
The Catholic Diocese of Erie is investigating allegations of sexual abuse made against the late Monsignor John Hagerty, who was the headmaster of Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie from 1984-89 and held other positions in the diocese before he died at 83 in April 2013.
The diocese announced on Thursday that it has placed Hagerty’s name on its publicly disclosed list of priests and laypeople who are “under investigation” for sexual abuse, including child sexual abuse. The list also includes priests and laypeople who the diocese said have been “credibly accused” of abuse.
The diocese also announced the addition of two other names to the list.
They are the late Rev. Michael Allison, who held positions at Mercyhurst Preparatory School in Erie and with the Shenango Valley Catholic School System in Mercer County; and Michael O’Brien, who the diocese said worked at St. Stephen School in Oil City and is incarcerated in a case not related to his work at the school. Allison died at 60 in 2020.
The diocese lists Allison’s case as “under investigation.” It said O’Brien’s case has been added to the list of “credibly accused” on what the diocese calls its Public Disclosure List, which now has more than 90 names.
Two other cases are listed as “under investigation,” and all the others are listed as having been “credibly accused.” The allegations can include abuse and failing to act on credible reports of abuse.
Law firm aided diocese in adding names to list
Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence T. Persico, the head of the diocese for nearly 12 years, authorized the creation of the list in 2018 as the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office investigated clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church statewide.
The diocese released no details on the cases of Hagerty, Allison and O’Brien.
The diocese said it contacted law enforcement about the allegations that led to the diocese’s involvement, and the diocese said its independent investigators with the Pittsburgh-based law firm of K&L Gates “were involved in the decision to put all three men on the Public Disclosure List.”
“The announcement of updates to our Public Disclosure List understandably causes considerable dismay,” Persico said in a statement. “The pain and sorrow of survivors of sexual abuse continues, and Catholics, who may not have even known those under investigation, wonder when this will end. Yet the reality is, past cases continue to affect us today.
“Our position remains the same as when we first published the list: The public has a right to know the names of people whom we consider credibly accused of actions that disqualify and prohibit them from working or volunteering with children or youth. In addition, publishing the names of people who are deceased is one way to encourage other victims of that person to come forward.”
List came about as attorney general was investigating
The 13-county Catholic Diocese of Erie has regularly updated its Public Disclosure list since its inception.
Persico’s creation of the list was a groundbreaking move among Catholic dioceses nationwide, who routinely refused to publicize the names of priests and others who had been accused of sexually abusing children.
Like other Catholic dioceses, the Diocese of Erie came under scrutiny for its handling of the sexual abuse crisis after the scandal exploded nationwide with the Boston Globe’s reports, in early 2002, of abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston.
Persico’s predecessor as bishop, Donald W. Trautman, who died in 2022, largely shield the names of abused priests, but Persico took a different approach years into his episcopate.
Persico released the Erie diocese’s first Public Disclosure List in April 2018, about four months before then Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, now the governor, released his office’s sweeping grand jury report on abuse allegations in Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, including the Erie diocese.
The Catholic Diocese of Erie’s list has included more names than the grand jury report.
Thursday’s announcement shows that the Catholic Diocese of Erie continues to investigate claims of abuse nearly four years after the release of the grand jury report and three years after it ended the administration of its compensation fund for abuse victims. The fund paid out $16.6 million to victims.
Hagerty and Allison held positions at schools, churches
Hagerty and Allison are two of the most prominent clerics to have their names added to the diocese’s Public Disclosure List since its creation.
Allison attended St. Mark Seminary in Erie but was ordained in Florida. He returned to the Diocese of Erie to care for his ailing father in 1997, according to his obituary.
He served as campus minister at Penn State Behrend from 1997-99, as well as weekend assistant at Holy Rosary Church in Erie from 1998-2004, among other assignments.
He was chaplain and faculty member at Mercyhurst Prep from 1999-2011. He served as chaplain at Penn State Behrend from 2002-2006 and was pastor at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Lawrence Park Township from 2007-2011.
In 2011, Allison was assigned pastor of Beloved Disciple Parish in Grove City, where he remained until his death. While at Beloved Disciple, he was also a religious studies instructor at Kennedy Catholic High School in Hermitage in 2013 and president of the Shenango Valley Catholic School System from 2013-16.
Hagerty was a well-known administrator and teacher at Cathedral Prep, from which he graduated in 1947. He was first assigned there in 1955, immediately after he was ordained, and taught at Prep until 1957. He went on to hold posts at St. James Church in east Erie and St. Mark Seminary and at other diocesan churches and institutions before he served as headmaster at Cathedral Prep from 1984-89.
After serving at other churches, Hagerty retired as a priest in 2005, though he came out of retirement to teach Latin at Prep in 2012-13.
Hagerty continued to be connected to Prep following his death, in April 2013. He willed $240,000 to the school in two separate gifts. The money was designated for scholarships for needy students.
Prep and Hagerty are linked in another way.
In 2018, the school renamed its athletic complex on West 12th Street the Hagerty Family Events Center. Prep said an anonymous donor had retained naming rights to the facility, which opened in 2010, and asked that the school name the complex after the Hagerty family.
The renaming of the center is meant to honor the involvement of members of the Hagerty family at Prep and in the Erie community over the years, Prep said in announcing the new name in April 2018. Monsignor Hagerty was among those family members, the school said.
Prep president sends email on disclosure
Cathedral Prep addressed the updates to the diocese’s list in an email to parents on Thursday.
“The Diocese of Erie issued a statement today regarding updates to their public disclosure list of those who have been accused of sexual abuse of minors or other violations of child protective policies,” the school’s president, Kevin Smith, said the email. “We are reaching out to you to make you aware that a former Prep administrator from the 1980s was named as an individual under investigation. These updates can be found on the Diocese of Erie website: https://www.eriercd.org/childprotection/disclosure.html.”
“The Diocese of Erie wants to acknowledge all survivors of abuse who have come forward in an effort to encourage any others to come forward who have not already done so,” Smith said. “These updates reaffirm the commitment of the Diocese of Erie to offer support and assistance to those survivors of abuse, per their website.
“We want to remind you that the safety and protection of our students is our top priority. Cathedral Prep is committed not only to ensuring their physical safety but also their mental and emotional well-being.”
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.