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."
