Priest who served in Mon Valley placed on administrative leave
The Rev. Joseph Feltz
A Catholic priest who once served in two Mon Valley parishes has been placed on administrative leave after having been accused of sexually abusing a minor.
In a statement released Saturday, Bishop David Zubik stated that the Rev. Joseph Feltz, 65, has been removed from his duties as pastor of the Saint Christopher Parish in Prospect, Butler County. Feltz, a McKeesport native, has served at a number of parishes throughout the Pittsburgh region, including Mary, Mother of the Church in Charleroi, where he was installed in 1993, and the now-shuttered St. Anthony’s Parish in Monongahela, which Feltz left in 2010.
It has also been reported that Feltz served as a priest in Castle Shannon and Midland, though that could not be confirmed by the Rev. Nicholas S. Vaskov, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Though Feltz was not named in the wide-ranging grand jury report released this summer detailing abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests across Pennsylvania, he was named in a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court by a North Carolina man who claims he was abused by Feltz and other priests in the 1970s and 1980s. Feltz has denied the allegation.
Zubik sent letters this past weekend to all the parishes where Feltz has served, noting that placing a priest on administrative leave “does not imply guilt. It is intended to safeguard the course of justice while preserving the rights of everyone involved, including both the person who made the allegation and the person against whom the allegation has been made.”
While he is on administrative leave, Feltz will not be able to dress as a priest or participate in public ministry. Zubik also stated if the allegation is unfounded, “all that is possible will be done to restore (his) reputation and return him to the ministry.”
Other priests with ties to Washington and Greene counties have been placed on administrative leave in the months since the grand jury report. Retired priest Bernard Costello, who had been a temporary administrator at Mary, Mother of the Church parish in 2011, was accused in August of sexually abusing a minor in the mid-1960s. The Rev. John Bauer, who had been serving in several parishes in Greene County, was named in the grand jury report for allegedly wrestling with boys and sharing alcohol with them. Both Costello and Bauer have denied the accusations.
The Pittsburgh diocese is urging anyone who has been abused or harmed by someone representing the Catholic Church to call the diocesan assistance coordinator 1-888-808-1235, or the Pennsylvania state abuse hotline at 1-800-932-0313.