Fr. Geoffrey Drew

St. Ignatius in Green Township pastor since mid-2018 when placed on leave 7/23/2019. Accused of sending inappropriate text messages to at least one boy at the parish school. Had been complaints to church officials about his behavior toward boys at his previous parish in 2013 and 2015. Auxiliary Bishop Binzer knew of the complaints but did not inform Archbishop Schnurr. One parishioner said she wrote Schnurr and Binzer in 8/2018 about “red flags.” Drew was was kept in ministry ‘under monitoring;’ St. Ignatius parish and school leaders were not told of the prior complaints or monitoring. In 8/2019 Binzer was a member of the USCCB committee on child protection. As of 7/2019, Drew was to be sent to treatment. Indicted in 8/2019 on 9 counts of rape of a boy, age 9-11, occurring 1988-1991 while a music teacher at St. Jude’s in Green Township. Pleaded not guilty. In jail on $5M bond. Pope Francis accepted Binzer’s resignation in Spring 2020. There are reportedly other alleged victims, including a second former St. Jude student who claimed abuse by Drew between 1985 and 1987.  In 2005 40 boys at St. Rita’s Parish School in Dayton OH complained in a letter to school officials of Drew’s touching them (shoulders, faces, whispering in their ears) and asked them to make him stop. No action; the boys were made to apologize to Drew. There were also complaints throughout the 1980s and in the 1990s. Drew pleaded guilty on 12/2/2021, just before trial. Sentenced in a plea bargain to 7 years in prison and required to register for life as a sex offender. The archdiocese stated that it would seek Drew’s laicization.