MISSISSIPPI
Clarion Ledger
Written by
Ruth Ingram
A Catholic priest, who years ago served in five Mississippi parishes, was sentenced to 7½ years in prison Wednesday on federal child sex abuse charges.
Father Bob Poandl was found guilty in September in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. He brought a 10-year-old Cincinnati old boy to Spencer, W.Va., in August 1991 and sexually assaulted the child.
His first assignments after taking his holy vows were in Mississippi, where he worked from 1968-73 at Catholic parishes in Aberdeen, Amory, Okolona, Houston and Fulton. Catholic officials transferred Poandl to different parishes about 30 times in his 44 years in the priesthood.
“That alone is a serious red flag,” Judy Jones, a member of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said in a news release. “A number of bishops and other church officials have acted dreadfully in this case, even in recent years. Despite this victim’s credible abuse report, Catholic officials put Father Poandl back on the job as recently as 2012.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.