Youngstown Diocesan leader responds to priest abuse allegations from victims support group

YOUNGSTOWN

Monsignor John A. Zuraw, chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown, responded Tuesday to issues raised by Road to Recovery, a New Jersey-based support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.

Robert Hoatson, support group president, led a news conference Sunday near diocesan offices that included Barbara Aponte, mother of Luke Bradesky, a student from 1990-94 at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren and a victim of the late Stephen Baker, who abused a group of JFK students.

The Sunday news event was prompted by the release of findings by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. That investigation of Altoona-Johnstown Diocese revealed former bishops covered up or didn’t respond to allegations of abuse by more than 50 priests from 1966 to 2011. Baker was implicated in some cases.

Baker was in the religious order of the Third Order Regular Franciscans, the monsignor explained. “Baker was not a diocesan priest under the bishop. He was a religious brother under a local religious superior,” he said. When the religious order’s ranks dwindled, members were reassigned.

“The diocese had no knowledge of Baker’s misbehavior until it learned of the alleged abuse,” Monsignor Zuraw said.

Read more of his remarks in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.