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  Retired Priest Suspended after Abuse Charge Renewed

By Travis Gettys
WLWT
May 1, 2008

http://www.wlwt.com/news/16115014/detail.html

CINCINNATI -- A retired Cincinnati priest was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.

A man reported in 1993 that he was abused in the 1950s by Robert Stricker, who at the time was associate pastor at Saint William Parish in Price Hill.

Stricker denied the allegation, and archdiocese

officials said they investigated and determined the charges were unsubstantiated.

However, the same man came forward again several weeks ago with new information, and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said the accusation appeared to be true.

Pilarczyk banned the 84-year-old Stricker from presenting himself as a priest while police investigate the allegations, which church officials said was the strongest measure a bishop may undertake on his own.

Stricker had been a priest since 1948 and taught at Elder High School during the 1950s, before he left to study library science in Washington, D.C.

He later served in various positions within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, including co-pastor of Saint James the Greater Parish in White Oak in 1974, pastor of Saint Boniface Parish in Cincinnati in 1977, and associate pastor of Saint Boniface in 1992.

Stricker, who retired in 1993, becomes the eighth priest to be placed on administrative leave as the result of child abuse accusations, according to the archdiocese.

An additional seven priests were permanently removed by Vatican action and another two were permanently removed from priestly ministry but remain under the archbishop's authority, church officials said.

 
 

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