UPI en Español  |   UPI Asia  |   About UPI  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Accused priest's photo in school yearbook

|
 
Published: June 13, 2012 at 4:32 PM

PHILADELPHIA, June 13 (UPI) -- Parents are angry that the final yearbook of a Catholic school in Philadelphia includes a photograph of a priest accused of molesting boys.

Holy Spirit School is being closed, and the 2012 yearbook was designed to be a summation of its history, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. But parents of the school's students say they do not want to remember David Sicoli, a former pastor of the parish who was removed from the priesthood in 2008.

Maria Capetola said she assumed the parish had made a mistake until she asked the Rev. Mark Kunigonis, the current pastor, why Sicoli's photograph was in the yearbook.

"Well, he was a pastor and he wasn't convicted," she said was his response.

"You're sick. You're a sick man," she said she replied.

Sicoli has never been criminally charged. A 2005 grand jury report found he was a likely child molester and his name came up in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who is charged with moving priests around to protect child abusers.

Jury deliberations continued Wednesday in the Lynn trial.

"When an image or a name of a known child abuser is published, it causes some very real wounds and it reopens wounds for victims," Leslie Davila, head of the archdiocese's office of child and youth protection, said. "The inclusion was regrettable and may have caused pain for victims of abuse or acted as a traumatic cue for people."

Recommended Stories
© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
'Star Trek Into Darkness' screening NBC upfronts Met Ball 2013
'Great Gatsby' premieres in New York Spire raised on top of One WTC 2013: Celebrity break ups and divorces
Additional U.S. News Stories
1 of 17
Tornado recover efforts underway in Moore, Oklahoma
View Caption
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin talks to victims from the May 20 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, May 22, 2013. The EF-5 tornado cut a path of destruction approximately 17 miles by 1.3 miles wide and left 24 people dead. UPI/J.P. Wilson
fark
Tesla pays back half a billion dollar federal loan a decade before it's due
FDA objects to new sleep drug because it "impairs driving", presumably by making you sleepy
Teen wins contest by producing blandest, most sterile cursive writing imaginable
Theme of Farktography Contest No. 420: "Monochromatic Masterpieces". Details and rules in first...
Photographer snaps a really great picture of a guy proposing to his lady on a cliff, decides to...
New thinga-ma-hooey keeps people from being abusive and neglecting their beer