A view of Baltimore’s Basilica nestled amid the city’s famed row houses. / Public domain
CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2023 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
The Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Benedictine order have removed a decadeslong pastor from public ministry and suspended his priestly faculties after he confirmed to a local media outlet that years ago he entered a confidential $200,000 settlement to quiet allegations of male adult sexual assault and financial fraud.
“I just wanted to keep him quiet, to be rid of him, because he was just stirring up trouble,” Father Paschal Morlino, OSB, told The Baltimore Banner in its October report. “My conscience is clear; it’s all stuff that he made up.”
The archdiocese said in a statement Sunday that after being made aware of the report, it immediately began an investigation and decided within 24 hours, along with the Benedictine order, to remove Morlino as pastor and suspend his priestly faculties.
Morlino, who was the pastor for more than 30 years at St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, has since returned to his religious community, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
A lawyer for the archabbey declined to comment on Monday. CNA reached out to the American-Cassinese Congregation, which oversees the archabbey, for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.
CNA also reached out to the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where the archabbey is located, but a spokesman said that Morlino is not a diocesan priest and therefore does not have any faculties in the diocese.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore said in its statement that both the archdiocese and the Benedictines “intend to conduct further investigation.”
The allegations
Kathy Durm-St. Amant, a former parishioner from Morlino’s Baltimore church, told The Baltimore Banner that a friend once confided in her that many years prior he had taken a cruise with Morlino in which the priest sexually assaulted him.
”He said he went on that cruise, he was in bed. He woke up with Paschal on top of him,” Durm-St. Amant said.
That man worked for Morlino, now 85, carrying out different duties for the pastor’s church such as fundraising, cooking, and cleaning, the outlet reported.
She encouraged her friend, whom the outlet did not name, to contact a lawyer.
That friend died in 2020, but after his death, Durm-St. Amant discovered negotiation letters between attorneys relating to the incident, the outlet reported. The letters were provided to the outlet.
One of the letters, dated Jan. 24, 2018, was from the man’s attorney Joanne Suder.
That letter demanded $375,000 in exchange for forgoing a lawsuit, but it also accused Morlino of forging the man’s signature on bank records, the outlet reported.
“You stole all of his cash from checks telling him his expenses exceeded the balances of his checks,” Suder wrote.
In that letter, the man’s attorney also accused the priest of raping the man on the cruise in September 2000. Additionally, the letter accuses Morlino of “multiple rapes” in the years following the cruise, according to the outlet.
“His physician has opined that your sexual, physical, emotional, and fraudulent behavior has caused him such injuries that he may never recover,” Suder wrote, referring to her client.
Suder declined to comment to CNA on Monday.
A letter from Morlino’s attorney, Salvatore Anello III, responded to Suder’s demands saying, “Although Father Paschal is indeed not a rich person, in conjunction with his family and friends, he has managed to raise $25,000 to try and settle this matter.”
“There would have to be a release and total confidentiality agreement. As you can see whatever we do here, we are in an untenable position since the mere accusation, whether it be true or not, and it is not true, can end his ministry at St. Benedict’s,” the letter said.
Both parties settled for $200,000 in February 2018, documents show. The pastor confirmed the deal to the outlet.
Anello could not be reached by CNA for comment by time of publication.
Durm-St. Amant, the man’s friend, told the outlet that she notified the Archdiocese of Baltimore of the sexual assault allegations in August 2018 and added that she then met with Monsignor James Hannon, then-director of the division of clergy personnel, and Jerri Burkhardt, director of the office of child and youth protection.
But she said she felt ignored.
“What did he say? They’re going to meet with [Morlino] and counsel him?” the woman told the outlet about Hannon. “Not, ‘We’re going to shut him down.’ Not, ‘We’re going to take him out of service.’ That he needs counseling.”
In that August 2018 complaint to the archdiocese, Durm-St. Amant also alleged that Morlino had sexually assaulted a different man on a separate cruise. That man had died prior to the complaint being brought.
The archdiocese told the outlet that Morlino denied the assault and the church could not corroborate the allegation because the man had died.
In the archdiocese’s statement Sunday, it said that in 2018 an individual brought a complaint against Morlino but that it related to sexual harassment — not sexual assault — of an adult man who had died by the time of the complaint, and therefore could not be corroborated.
CNA reached out to the archdiocese for comment on Monday but did not receive a response.
Denying the allegations
Morlino denies all the allegations made against him.
He told The Baltimore Banner that he did in fact go on a cruise with the man, Durm-St. Amant’s friend, along with three other friends, but had no sexual contact with him or in the following years.
Morlino also denies the fraud allegations. He told the outlet that there was an agreement that the man’s paychecks would be deposited into a church account that would cover his health care costs.
“I took care of his medical insurance; that was the deal,” the priest said. “He didn’t have any money; he played on my sympathy.”
The outlet also reported that Morlino paid the tax debt on the man’s home. But eventually, their relationship ended when the priest dismissed the man from his duties at the church.
Morlino said he was stunned when the accusations came.
A new administrator is being chosen to run St. Benedict Church in Baltimore, according to the archdiocese.
Anyone with information about sexual misconduct by any representative of the Church is encouraged to to contact the Baltimore Archdiocese by calling the Ethics line at 1-888-572-8026 or by visiting the archdiocese’s website.
[…]
Do Jewish organizations have some animosity towards Catholicism? Beyond the abortion divide?
This is extreme animus which seems disproportionate to the leaked memo about federal v state lawmaking?!
Apparently their [Ruth Sent Us] philosophy is that every pregnancy they suffer is due to rape. They want sexual pleasure without responsibility.
Without grace that brings us to respond to God’s goodness, purity, spousal faithfulness, the tenderness and selfless giving of motherhood and love of children, the inevitable result is disassociation of the divinely ordained gift of sensual pleasure from the purpose of the conjugal act.
They dress in long red hooded gowns with white headdress as eerie as their coven like behavior. Sensuality has become consonant with Justice A Kennedy’s golden calf of liberty. After all, if we insist on something as a human right, there must be some personal, interior reward. Fundamental. Venereal. Consequently and virtually our culture has become venereal minded, foisting a new morality of liberty to exercise and experiment sexually [from pansexuality {with humans} soon likely to omnisexuality {with any living creature}] on college campuses, in children’s classrooms.
Irrational. Of course, but only if you’re not morally deranged. Sin, repudiation of natural law is always irrational because reason, that is, right reason is rational and consistent with the ordained order of things.
What then for the Catholic? Despite ourselves, our widespread nominal practice, the priesthood abuse scandal, heretical Catholics in Congress, apparent abandonment from the highest hierarchy – we are in the forefront! Miracle of miracles it’s Catholics who bear the banner of Christ and Blessed Mary as did the Crusaders, as did Joan of Arc, as did Columbus when he landed on the Americas’ soil.
We’re in for a fight [I’m stupid and arrogant so I choose to fight] offered the chance to prove our mettle to Christ, that we truly love him, that we stand for truth and justice, for family and children, that we will stand and fight to the end and to the glory of his Holy Name.
So then, I choose to fight with the spiritual arms Christ has given me, to address the truths of the faith clearly and with confidence, to give example as Christ did when confronted, to pray and offer sacrifice, to desist from violence and harm to others, to demonstrate the true meaning of our humanness.
Thats a disappointing statement, Father. Do you imagine prayer will stop demonstrators who believe they can disrupt our worship services with no repercussions at all? And if they indeed set consecrated hosts on fire in front of you, do you imagine prayer will put the fire out? Would you really do NOTHING?? I personally am tired of the kid glove treatment given to the 2020 rioters,serial shoplifters who KNOW they will neither be arrested or prosecuted, and those who vandalize our churches while police say those acts will NOT be treated as hate crimes. Now we have threats not only to our secular judges but ( I saw the video) people threatening to set the Eucharist on fire. When evil people KNOW they will never pay ANY price for their deeds, they will not only continue the behaviors, but they will escalate them. I will never be anyone’s willing victim. I am a Catholic and I believe in prayer. I am also an American and will not stand by meekly if attacked, nor allow my civil right to worship, to be stolen by people who have the IQ of a potato.To telegraph the idea one will not fight back to defend what they believe is a grave mistake, and it actively invites further attacks.The suppression of religion touted by the left was one of the reasons this nation spent decades physically fighting Communism all around the world. Peace at any price is NOT peace. It is simply capitulation.
Additionally LJ I certainly agree we cannot roll over in the face of violence directed against the innocent. That I can assure you I’ve always held.
Thats good to hear, Father. When raising my sons I always told them I NEVER wanted to be told by a teacher or parent that they had ever attacked another child or struck the first blow in any situation. But I always told them, if someone hits YOU first, hit them back as hard as you can. Once when one of my children was about 5 years old I was chatting with an acquaintance at a local pool. Her son was big for his age and was aggressively physical with other children. As we chatted, this child several times, unprovoked,roughly pushed my son down into the water. The boy’s mother said nothing, but I was about to. Finally my son (also big but not confrontational by nature) , got up out of the water and punched the boy so hard that he loosened a tooth. Needless to say that boy never attacked my son again. Its a hard lesson to learn, but not every maladjusted or bullying personality can be coaxed into appropriate behavior by “niceness” or prayer. These types of people are frequently the ones who end up in jail as adults. Sometimes you are forced to defend yourself physically. Its surprising how often that sort of push-back resolves the issue.The bully always counts on making their opponent cower in the corner.They count on fear to prevent resistance. In the case of our freedom of religion, we dare not allow such a thing.
I’m pleased LJ. At first I misunderstood until I gave further thought that it wasn’t intended personally.
Do they really think that helps their cause to slaughter innocent human beings? Fools.
hmm…. 🙂 – here we thought it was the 4th Easter Sunday….silly us 🙂
This would not happen at a Mosque. Just sayin’
It was Catholics-In-Name-Only Biden and Pelosi who encouraged these disruptions. And yet they are not excommunicated for it. Do we have to wait before these pagans desecrate the Host itself that the Church authority do something about these wolves in sheep’s clothing?
Would it not be nice if just one prominent American prelate put Biden on notice that we expect him to expend all necessary resources to protect churches and the faithful from these demonic hooligans and vandals? Yet again, their silence convicts them. And from the Vatican, all we hear are more condemnations of the rigorists. With shepherds like these, they mind as well as put out a sign saying it’s open season on the flock. Just so long as the federal money keeps flowing to Catholic Charities, all is fine at the chanceries. One day, that will get pulled too.