KANSAS CITY (KS)
KSHB - NBC 41 [Kansas City MO]
August 20, 2026
By Sarah Plake
After a year-long investigation into 16 allegations, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas determined former Bishop Miege President Phil Baniewicz is unsuitable for “ecclesiastical employment” within the Archdiocese.
Baniewicz will no longer be able to work, volunteer, or take on any ministerial role within the Archdiocese following an independent investigation.
According to the Archdiocese announcement on Thursday, “The investigation disclosed concerns regarding Mr. Baniewicz’s conduct and determined a consistent pattern of imprudent professional conduct, repeated failures to maintain appropriate ministerial and professional boundaries with minors, deficient safeguarding practices, and conduct incompatible with the standards expected of those entrusted with ecclesiastical service involving children and vulnerable people.”
The Archdiocese investigated 16 different, “distinct” allegations against Baniewicz spanning the last 40 years.
KSHB 41’s Sarah Plake was the first to report on Baniewicz when he was hired at Miege in 2023, including allegations that he sexually abused a teenager in the 1980s in Mesa, Arizona.
Multiple former students at Maur Hill Mount Academy, where Baniewicz worked before being hired at Miege, came forward to KSHB 41 with their own allegations of inappropriate behavior.
Miege families and alumni expressed their concerns about Baniewicz’s hiring and pushed the school for answers. Some families reported those concerns to the Archdiocese.
In June 2025, the Miege board of trustees put Baniewicz on administrative leave due to “concerns about his inability to oversee a safe environment,” and Archbishop Shawn McKnight announced an investigation.
Baniewicz was subsequently restricted from all active ministry and fired from Miege in August.
He was put on a safety plan and, according to the Archdiocese, the safety plan remains in place. It has never been made public.
Two former students KSHB 41 spoke with, Taylor Kelsey and Parker Valdez, said they gave statements in forensic interviews at the Child Protection Center this past winter.
Kelsey previously told KSHB 41 about a culture of blurred boundaries at Maur Hill Mount Academy. She described an experience when she was a student there a decade ago, when Baniewicz called her into his office for a closed-door, one-on-one conversation where he interrogated her about sex.
“While I’ll never know his intentions because I can’t speculate, I know that the harm existed and it wasn’t just for me,” Kelsey said on Thursday. “And now enough people have agreed and the right people have agreed that he is a risk that is not worth – He’s not worth it.”
According to the Archdiocese, the independent investigation “was led by a professional investigation firm that conducted a comprehensive process that included 68 interviews, review and analysis of extensive records and reports, and consultation with authorities from multiple jurisdictions.”
The investigation “examined 16 distinct allegations against Mr. Baniewicz spanning from approximately 1985 to 2025.”
The review included reports regarding his work as a youth minister in Mesa, Arizona, from 1985 to 1993; a senior officer of Life Teen Inc. from 1993 to 2006; president of Maur Hill Mount Academy in Kansas from 2010 to 2023; and president of Miege from 2023 to 2025.
“Thankfully, we had enough people that spoke up, 16 people spoke up,” Kelsey said. “And this is 40 years of poor youth leadership that he has been a part of. I don’t think he ever knew how to do it right.”
The Archdiocese’s announcement said Baniewicz had multiple opportunities to address the allegations. He was interviewed and submitted a written statement.
KSHB 41 has requested that written statement, but the Archdiocese said it is not for publication.
We have never received a response from Baniewicz after multiple attempts to reach him over the last three years of reporting this story.
Baniewicz has never been charged with a crime.
While the Archdiocese’s investigation did not “establish a level of certainty required by Church law to initiate a canonical disciplinary process, it revealed a persistent and deeply concerning pattern of conduct that reached the level at which administrative action must be taken.”
In a response to follow-up questions KSHB 41 submitted, the Archdiocese’s spokesperson, Marissa Easter, said canonical discipline includes going to a “canonical trial,” which is a judicial process with the potential for penalty under church law. The Baniewicz decision is an administrative action “which is still canonically binding and restrictive.”
“The protection of minors and persons in vulnerable situations is fundamental to the mission of our church,” Archbishop Shawn McKnight said in a statement Thursday. “As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we have a sacred responsibility to safeguard the innate human dignity of every person and to hold one another, especially those who exercise authority and power in the Church, to the high moral standards of our faith.”
Community members are skeptical that the Church’s move will do anything to deter future behavior.
David Clohessy, an activist who speaks out against clergy abuse and is a survivor himself, spoke with KSHB 41 following the announcement.
“There’s no effort on the part of the archbishop to keep him away from children elsewhere,” Clohessy said. “Archbishop McKnight should be shouting from the rooftops and saying, ‘Never will he work in any Catholic institution anywhere.'”
Anne Barrett Doyle is the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that extensively documents abuse in the Catholic Church. She told KSHB 41 in a statement that it’s “beyond distressing” that it took so long for Archbishop McKnight to take “this minimal step.”
“Shame on McKnight and on former Archbishop Naumann. Both men chose to put children and young people at risk. An institution with a duty of care to children and young people shouldn’t hire people accused of sex offenses — period. It was irresponsible and reckless to hire Baniewicz in the first place, given the known allegation against him.
“It’s sobering to consider that if not for media exposure and public outcry, Baniewicz likely would still occupy his powerful post as president of Bishop Miege High School.
“We urge Archbishop McKnight to take two steps: 1) write immediately to every diocese and religious order in the U.S. to warn them not to hire Baniewicz; and 2) open its personnel files to an external investigator, commission a full accounting of the archdiocese’s handling of Baniewicz, fire the personnel involved in his hiring and retention, and issue a full report to the public.
“What’s most alarming about this saga is the question it raises about the archdiocese’s hiring and retention practices: What other potentially dangerous personnel are working in the archdiocese right now?”
Anne Barrett Doyle
Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney whose firm has handled hundreds of abuse cases against the Catholic Church in the Kansas City area, said that while Baniewicz is not a priest, he had access to and responsibility for the children at the schools where he worked.
“That the Archdiocese would ignore 16 reports of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior is irresponsible,” Randles’ statement said. “The parents of those children had a right to know that their children were placed in the care of a safe leader.”
Randles went on to say she is appreciative of the Archdiocese for taking some action, but “having a ‘do not hire’ memorandum in his file is simply not enough.”
KSHB 41 asked the Archdiocese the nature of the 16 allegations, but Easter said no further details could be provided to protect the privacy of all involved.
We will continue our reporting on this announcement and what comes next.