3 friars in Pennsylvania abuse case removed from duties

Published March 17, 2016

Three Franciscan friars charged in Pennsylvania with allowing a suspected sexual predator to hold jobs where he molested more than 100 children have been removed from their religious assignments in Florida and Minnesota.

Friars Robert D'Aversa and Anthony Criscitelli are scheduled to surrender Friday on child endangerment and conspiracy charges. They and Friar Giles Schinelli are accused of assigning or allowing Brother Stephen Baker to remain at Bishop McCort High School, where he molested scores of students from 1992 to 2000.

Baker killed himself in 2013 when Ohio church officials announced settlements involving students molested there in the 1980s.

The Rev. Patrick Quinn heads the Franciscan monastery near Hollidaysburg. He has removed Schinelli and D'Aversa from assignments in the Orlando, Florida, diocese and Criscitelli from pastoring a parish in Minneapolis.

The friars haven't commented.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/3-friars-in-pennsylvania-abuse-case-removed-from-duties