Letter From Layman

To: George Foster
From: Name Withheld
Date: 9/13/02

I am writing to you because I understand that you are concerned about the pedophilia, homosexuality, and abuse problems in our diocese, and I want to bring to your attention an incident that occurred a few years back in our parish here in State College. In 1993 I was serving on our parish council while Fr. Robert Kelly was our parochial vicar and was apparently being groomed to replace our retiring pastor.

All of a sudden in the spring of '93 Fr. Kelly vanished from sight amidst some very vague statements about an "Illness." No one in the parish knew what had become of Fr. Kelly, and no answers were forthcoming from anyone in authority. In May Fr. Kelly contacted me himself with what was to me an incredible story. He said he had been sent to some sort of "treatment" center in Eastern PA because the Chancery had received a phone call from a homosexual from San Francisco who had accused Fr. Kelly of having molested him when he was an altar boy at our parish. Fr Kelly said he was innocent and that he needed money to hire a detective to prove his innocence. I believed him and hired a private detective here in State College to help him. The detective cautioned me that Fr Kelly might be guilty, and that the only way he would take the case would be for me to pay him first for the polygraph expert in Baltimore. I gave the detective my check #3426 dated 6/7/93 in the amount of $350.00. The agreement with the detective was that Fr Kelly would be his client and I would pay the detectives invoices.

Strangely, I heard nothing more about this from either the detective or from Fr Kelly for about two years when I again spoke with the detective and, as I recall, was told that Fr Kelly had not passed the lie detector test. The "homosexual from San Francisco", it turned out was actually the son of a local (Name Withheld), who later admitted to me that his son had, in fact been molested by Fr Kelly, but that he would not come forward publicly because his son was trying to get his life together. In the years since then other troublesome stories about Fr Kelly have circulated around town.

The worst part of this sad and disturbing account is that Fr Kelly is now assigned as the pastor and only priest at a very small parish here in Centre County where, I suppose he remains free to carry on such activities as he sees fit.

Why does this Bishop fail to recognize the problems inherent in the ordination and, most especially, why does he not follow even the weak guidelines agreed to by the Bishops in Dallas last summer? If Bishop Adamec has done this with Fr Kelly I believe it is a sure bet that there are other homosexual abuser priests out there in the diocese who also continue to work in other parishes.