A Roman Catholic priest from Pennsylvania has been accused of inappropriately touching a 17-year-old girl and sending her nude photos through social media, according to authorities on Aug. 21.
Father Kevin Lonergan, 30, has been charged with one count of corruption of minors and one count of indecent assault for alleged inappropriate sexual contact with the girl in June while serving as a priest, Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said during a press conference.
He has also been accused of contacting her via Snapchat—a social media application where users can share photos and videos—and sending her nude images of himself over the period of December 2017 to January 2018.
“[Kevin Lonergan] has been charged with one count of corruption of minors and one count of indecent assault. Indecent assault is a misdemeanor of the second degree; corruption is a felony of the third degree,” Martin said.
The Diocese of Allentown said in a statement that in early June, Lonergan was immediately removed from his assignment as an assistant pastor at Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in Allentown. He has since been suspended from all priestly ministry pending the investigation.
The diocese also said they were asked to delay their public announcement about Lonergan’s removal by the district attorney as “it might interfere with the investigation.”
“The Diocese cooperated fully with the law enforcement investigation,” the statement said.
From District Attorney Martin on actions of @BishopSchlert pic.twitter.com/SgBkMcbREZ
— Diocese of Allentown (@AllentownDioces) August 21, 2018
Lonergan first met the victim at St. Francis of Assisi Church, which is also in Allentown. He obtained her phone number from other members of the church, reported Fox 29.
He has been released on a $50,000 bail. If convicted he faces a maximum of 7 years in jail for the felony charge and 2 years for the misdemeanor charge.
‘Predator Priests’ Revealed in Alarming Report
The Aug. 21 announcement comes at a time when the state is grappling over a disturbing report accusing more than 300 clergymen across Pennsylvania of sexual abuse (pdf). The nearly 900-page state grand jury report was released on Aug. 14 and detailed the widespread and decades-long sexual abuse by clergy, as well as the systemic coverup efforts of church officials.
Lonergan is not among the 301 clergymen listed in the alarming report, according to the Diocese of Allentown. The 30-year-old was accused after the investigation for the report was completed.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office led the investigation into the complaints after arguing the report should be made public during a heated legal battle. The findings cover abuse by the clergy dating back as far as 70 years in six of eight Pennsylvania dioceses.
The report identified more than 1,000 child victims, the majority of whom were boys, however it indicated that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward “is in the thousands.”
In response, the Vatican expressed “shame and sorrow” over the report’s findings.
“The abuses described in the report are criminal and morally reprehensible. Those acts were betrayals of trust that robbed survivors of their dignity and their faith. The Church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur,” Vatican spokesperson Greg Burke said in a statement.
Epoch Times’ Bowen Xiao contributed to this report.
