ORD.
1959
1960 Byesville, OH Holy Trinity Church 2 priests
Stations: St.
Mary’s church Walhounding; Harryette
1962,
1965
1968,
1971
Administrator—Francis
E. Maloney
1972-73
1974-78
1975-78
school:
122
1979 on duty outside diocese F. Edward Maloney, Instituto De Idiomas,
Padre de Maryknoll, Casilla, 550,
1980-84 on duty outside diocese F. Edward Maloney, Casilla 5823,
1985
1985-86 Bellaire,
OH St. Michael Church Francis
1987-90 absent on leave—Francis E. Maloney’59
(Steubenville Diocese)
1987-88
3
priests school: 200
1989
1990-91 listing in priest directory shows: Francis E. Maloney ’59 (PMB)
1992-95
1996 not listed in
directory
1997 Port
1998-99
2000-04 retired
no address given
2005-06 not listed in directory
No directories available for 1961, 1963-4, 1966-7,
1969-1970, 1982
Started career in Stubenville Diocese. Moved to Florida. Removed
from Florida parish in 2002 after 17 yr old accused him of acting
inappropriately around him. Youth said he found Maloney in bed with another man
and that the priest would walk around his home nude while the youth was there.
No criminal charges filed. Youth filed civil suit 3/03. Suit settled in 5/04 for
less than $1 million. Maloney admitted to a long-term, "sporadic" sexual
relationship with the other priest
St. Lucie Priest Removed from
Post
By Teresa Lane and Kathleen Chapman
Palm Beach Post
[Florida]
May 4, 2002
A priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic
Church has been removed from active ministry after a 17-year-old parishioner
told church authorities he discovered the priest in bed with another
man.
The Rev. Francis Maloney, who called the teen "very confused,"
admitted he made some inappropriate statements to him on a topic unrelated to
sex but said, "What (the teen) concluded is all wrong." Maloney's dismissal on
Thursday comes about three years after he was forced to retire and undergo
treatment for engaging in sexual activity with a man while working as an
associate pastor at St. Luke Catholic Church in Palm Springs, said Sam Barbaro,
spokesman for the Diocese of Palm Beach.
Maloney, 71, said parts of the
boy's story reported on a TV newscast were not true. Maloney denied making
sexual advances to the teen - a claim the youth made during a TV interview, but
didn't mention when recounting his ordeal to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's pastor,
the Rev. Edmund Szpieg.
"I asked him point-blank, 'Did he ever touch you
or suggest anything sexual?' and he answered no to both questions," Szpieg said.
"His story stayed the same both times he told it to me. Then he went on TV and
said Father Maloney made sexual advances."
Maloney said he's known the
teen for about nine years and hired him in the fall after the youth mentioned he
needed money. Maloney paid him "good money" to come over after school, for two
hours most days, helping with such odd jobs as trimming hedges and packing up
Christmas decorations. But nothing sexual ever happened, he
said.
"I made some statements to him that I should not have - not
about sex," he said. "He's a very confused boy."
Although the
teen called Szpieg about the allegations April 27, he earlier had told a teacher
at John Carroll Catholic High School in Fort Pierce, Szpieg said. Diocesan
officials directed the teacher to report the accusation to a statewide
child-abuse hot line, but Barbaro said the abuse intake officer would not take
the report and transferred the call to the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office,
which also refused the call "due to the nature of the allegations," Barbaro
said.
Sheriff's spokesman Mark Weinberg said neither his office nor the
911 emergency system has a record of the call, which reportedly was placed about
2 p.m. Wednesday. Police spokesman Chuck Johnson said police hoped to interview
the teen Friday but were told he had hired an attorney and would meet with
police Monday or Tuesday.
Police are investigating whether a call was
placed to the abuse hot line, Johnson said.
"It just fell through the
cracks somewhere," Johnson said. "No one's been injured because of this
breakdown, and now we have learned of the incident and are moving forward with
an investigation."
Szpieg said the teen claimed Maloney walked around in
his home naked while the teen was doing housework and had a sexually explicit
letter from another priest offering advice on how to interest the boy in a
sexual relationship. When the teen returned to Maloney's Bridgeport Drive home
to confront him about the letter, he told Szpieg, he found Maloney naked in bed
with another man.
Szpieg said he was aware Maloney was helping the youth
with tuition at John Carroll but was unaware of the housekeeping job.
"If
I had known, I probably would have told him it wasn't a wise idea in this day
and age," Szpieg said. "I would never have a young boy clean my house. I
wouldn't want the appearance of any impropriety."
Earlier stint at
church
Maloney said he was at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton from 1996 to
1999 before returning in early 2001. In the mid-1990s he was at Holy Family
Catholic Church in Port St. Lucie for a short time - only six to eight months,
he said.
Barbaro said Maloney also served for a time as a priest at St.
Joseph Catholic Church in Stuart and St. Juliana Catholic Church in West Palm
Beach.
In April, the interim leader of the Palm Beach Diocese, the Rev.
James Murtagh, said that confidential church files contained five instances of
improper sexual activity between priests and adults but none involving
children.
Refusing to name any priests or victims, Murtagh said the five
cases primarily involved relationships between priests and women but also
included relationships between priests and men.
All but two, he said,
involved consensual relationships gone sour. He provided no details of the two
non-consensual relationships.
Port St. Lucie parishioners were shocked by
the allegations Friday and defended the cookie-baking, pet-loving priest as a
jewel at their church, built in 1999.
"He always made a point of getting
to know everyone's name and making them feel welcome," said Al Soricelli, a
founding member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, which is on Tunis Avenue in
southwest Port St. Lucie. "He even made a point to learn the pets' names and ask
how Fido was doing when he'd see you. I'm extremely sad, because I'll spill
blood to defend that church. It's the most incredible parish you could ask
for."
Church member Frank LaMorell said Maloney was always baking cookies
and other goodies for the church's bake sales and celebrated three Masses a
week.
"I like his whole attitude - friendly and approachable,"
LaMorell said. "He never acted in a lewd or suggestive manner. I can't believe
that."
Szpieg said that he arranged a meeting between the teen
and diocesan officials on Wednesday and that after the teen recounted his story,
officials asked him what he would like done in light of the incident. The youth
said, 'I don't want him to be a priest anymore,' and the diocese complied the
next day, Szpieg said.
Szpieg said officials wondered whether the teen
needed psychological counseling and were dismayed to hear him tell a TV reporter
it was an odd question.
"He had kind of a cocky attitude, and I plan to
mention that in my sermons about it this weekend," Szpieg said. "I've given
similar sermons when other priests in the diocese were removed for similar
allegations. Every time you turn the TV on you hear the same thing. It's wearing
on us."
Diocese Joins in Settling Teen's Suit against
Priest
By Mary McLachlin
Palm Beach Post [Florida]
May 8,
2004
The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach has agreed to join in the
settlement of a lawsuit filed by a Port St. Lucie youth alleging sexual
misconduct by the Rev. Francis Maloney, a retired priest.
The total
settlement is more than $150,000 - which Maloney's home insurance company agreed
to pay - and less than $1 million, according to attorneys and court
documents.
Lawyers would not disclose the amounts to be paid by the other
defendants - the diocese, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Port St.
Lucie and another retired priest, the Rev. Donald Whipple, and his religious
order, the Holy Cross Fathers.
Maloney, 73, acknowledged having a
long-term, "sporadic" sexual relationship with Whipple, who wrote sexually
explicit letters suggesting ways to seduce the then-17-year-old high school
student while he worked as a houseboy for Maloney.
"It would not be
appropriate for us to comment," said diocese attorney C. Brooks Ricca. The
five-county diocese, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has acknowledged paying more
than $900,000 to settle seven previous abuse or harassment claims in its 20-year
history.
Andrew Pelino, attorney for "John Doe Jr.," said the youth, now
18, plans to go to college and wanted to keep both the settlement and his
identity private.
"This was a very stressful, long process for our
client," Pelino said. "He just wants to put this behind him and lead his life
without any further distractions."
Maloney's share of the settlement,
$150,000, will be paid out of a $300,000 homeowner's liability insurance policy
issued by Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Co. Ricca said he didn't
know whether the diocese's portion, which also covers St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,
would be paid fully by its insurance carrier, Gallagher Bassett Services, or if
diocesan money would be required to supplement it.
Diocesan officials
couldn't be reached for comment, nor could the attorney for Whipple and the Holy
Cross Fathers.
Maloney came to the diocese from Ohio in 1986, starting at
St. Joseph Church in Stuart. He later served at St. Rita in Wellington, St.
Juliana in West Palm Beach, Holy Family in Port St. Lucie and St. Luke in Lake
Worth.
The teen, who attended John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce,
sued in March 2003, alleging Maloney was naked in front of him, asked
sex-related questions during counseling sessions and showed him pornographic
letters and pictures. He also said he found Maloney in bed with another
man.
Maloney denied the allegations and accused the youth of ransacking
his bedroom to find the letters and nude pictures put away in dresser drawers.
His lawyer, Gean Junginger of Fort Pierce, said Friday that Maloney denied any
wrongdoing, "civil, criminal or ecclesiastical."
"Mr. Maloney regrets
that correspondence, received by him through the U.S. mail from other people,
was taken from his home without his knowledge, presence or consent," Junginger
said. "He further regrets that these documents were used against the church by
its enemies. In the hysteria that followed the false allegations against him,
Mr. Maloney was attacked by the media, and public officials as well as church
officials. Mr. Maloney forgives these people for these attacks and prays for the
salvation of their souls."
Junginger said he believed a jury would have
exonerated Maloney, but a trial would have been painful and embarrassing for the
Catholic Church.
In court documents, Maloney said he did not approve of a
priest having any kind of homosexual relationship, because of the vow of
celibacy, and that homosexual acts were "of grave depravity, intrinsically
disordered (and) contrary to natural law."
He said he had only one
previous sexual liaison, with an anonymous man in Washington in 1995, while on
vacation from his post at Holy Family. But after Whipple testified they had a
12-year relationship, Maloney amended his statement and said he also had a
yearlong relationship with a man he identified only as "Tony" and had sexual
relations with two unidentified women.
Then-Bishop J. Keith Symons sent
him to St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., for six months of therapy in
1995. Maloney said he continued to receive outpatient treatment from a Stuart
counselor until 2000.
Symons and his successor, Bishop Anthony O'Connell,
later resigned after admitting past sexual misconduct.
Maloney was forced
to retire in 2000 by the Rev. James Murtagh, then vicar general, after an
allegation of a sexual relationship with another man while he was at St. Luke.
He became a volunteer priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, where the teen and his
mother were active in church ministries. When the boy complained to the diocese
in 2002, Murtagh stripped Maloney of all priestly
faculties.
Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach to Join Sex Abuse
Settlement
The Associated Press, carried in Sun-Sentinel [West Palm
Beach FL]
May 9, 2004
WEST PALM BEACH -- The Catholic Diocese of Palm
Beach will pay part of a settlement to a teenager who accused a now-retired
priest of sexual misconduct.
Lawyers would not disclose the amounts to be
paid by the diocese or the other defendants _ St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic
Church in Port St. Lucie, another retired priest, the Rev. Donald Whipple, and
his religious order, the Holy Cross Fathers.
The teen sued in March 2003,
alleging Rev. Francis Maloney was naked in front of him, asked sex-related
questions during counseling sessions and showed him pornographic letters and
pictures. He also said he found Maloney in bed with another man.
"It
would not be appropriate for us to comment," said diocese attorney C. Brooks
Ricca.
The five-county diocese, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has
acknowledged paying more than $900,000 to settle seven previous abuse or
harassment claims.
Maloney's home insurance company agreed to pay
$150,000 of the settlement. Exact terms of the settlement weren't release, but
it is more than $150,000 and less than $1 million, according to lawyers and
court documents.
Andrew Pelino, attorney for "John Doe Jr.," said the
youth, now 18, plans to go to college and wanted to keep both the settlement and
his identity private.
Maloney came to the diocese from Ohio in 1986,
starting at St. Joseph Church in Stuart. He later served at St. Rita in
Wellington, St. Juliana in West Palm Beach, Holy Family in Port St. Lucie and
St. Luke in Lake Worth.
Maloney denied the allegations and accused the
youth of ransacking his bedroom to find the letters and nude pictures put away
in dresser drawers.
His lawyer, Gean Junginger of Fort Pierce, said
Friday that Maloney denied any wrongdoing, "civil, criminal or
ecclesiastical."
Maloney was forced to retire in 2000 after an allegation
of a sexual relationship with another man while he was at St. Luke.
He
became a volunteer priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, where the teen and his
mother were active in church ministries. When the boy complained to the diocese
in 2002, Maloney was stripped of his priestly duties.