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  Allegations against 2 More Priests Emerge

By Michael Clancy
Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
September 30, 2002

Two more Catholic priests who served in Phoenix parishes have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

They are the late Rev. John P. Doran, who founded St. Thomas the Apostle in Phoenix in 1950, and the Rev. Floyd G. Stromberg, who served at St. Gregory in Phoenix from 1963 to '66.

The information was released Saturday to pastors of the 13 parishes where the men served in the 1960s. The Diocese of Tucson, for which both men worked at the time of the incidents, posted a news release on its Web site (www.diocesetucson.org) on Sunday.

Diocesan spokesman Fred Allison said the allegation against Doran dated to 1963, when he was at St. Thomas the Apostle. The allegation against Stromberg dated to 1966, when he served at St. Gregory, a parish in Superior and one in Tucson.

Both allegations were made to the diocese recently, Allison said. The identities of the accusers were not released.

Stromberg, who most recently served at Our Lady Queen of All Saints in Tucson, "confirmed the credibility" of the allegation against him, Allison said, and was suspended from the priesthood at the end of July. The allegation "was provided to appropriate authorities," Allison said, and no other allegations have been made against him.

He is the third priest who served St. Gregory's in span of eight years to be associated with sexual misconduct allegations. The late Rev. Robert Gluch recently was named in a lawsuit that alleged he sexually abused an altar boy at St. Gregory from 1965 to '67. The Rev. Harold Graf, who was at the parish from 1969 to '71, was removed from the priesthood in June after admitting to sexual misconduct 30 years ago at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tempe, his assignment after St. Gregory.

Doran, for whom the church hall is named at St. Thomas, died in April 1997 at the age of 79. After leaving St. Thomas in 1972, he was pastor at Our Lady of Joy in Carefree and St. Maria Goretti in Scottsdale. He retired in 1983. He also edited the diocesan magazine, Alive.

The Rev. Jim Wall, current pastor at St. Thomas, told parishioners of the allegation against Doran at the end of weekend Masses.

One other priest at St. Thomas, the Rev. Mark Lehman, was convicted of attempted sexual abuse, a felony, in 1991 and served 10 years in state prison. He allegedly molested several schoolchildren in the late 1980s.

CORRECTION:

Published ran 10/8/02: A story last week about allegations against the late Rev. John P. Doran said the church hall at St. Thomas the Apostle Church was named for Doran. The hall was named for his father, Daniel James Doran, a longtime parishioner at the church, according to family representative Sean McCoy.

 
 

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