Ex-Priest Sentenced for Abuse Crimes

This one hits a bit close to home, but fortunately, not too much so.

80-year-old former Catholic priest Edwin Scherzer, who served at my home parish of St. Therese during the 1960s, was sentenced to five years of house arrest on Monday of this week. Scherzer pleaded guilty in November to four counts of indecent or immoral acts or practices with a child younger than 15.

Scherzer will also be required to file as a registered sex offender for abusing boys in his care during the 1950s and 1960s.

Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly of the Archdiocese of Louisville removed Scherzer from public ministry in 2002 after Catholic bishops in the United States approved a policy calling for such action against priests suspected of having sexually abused a child.

I was an altar server during the period in which Scherzer was at St. Therese, but thankfully, I never found myself in a situation such as those described by the plaintiffs in this case.

Comments

[Tony Geraghty]

I was wondering who posted the blog that said they went to St Therese?

Priest who pled guilty to sex abuse lives by school
05:27 PM EDT on Friday, April 21, 2006

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- You can find him on Kentucky’s sex offender registry website. You can find him living in apartment #6 of Bishop David apartments on Dixie Highway, next to Holy Cross High School.
And retired priest Edwin Scherzer will get to keep living there, even though state law says convicted sex offenders can't live within 1000 feet of a school.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ken Conliffe agreed with prosecutors and Scherzer's attorney that Kentucky’s current law restricting where sex offenders can live doesn't apply to Scherzer or anyone else whose crimes were committed before 1970. State probation officials disagree.
“It’s not meant to be a punishment. It’s for the protection of the public,” says Jeff Mittendorf of the Kentucky Justice Cabinet.
In January, Scherzer was sentenced to five years probation for sexually abusing four kids. There are a slew of conditions on his probation, including no contact with kids under 16, treatment and an electronic monitoring bracelet.
The 81-year-old Scherzer is in poor health. The judge doesn't view him as a threat. But the attorney for probation and parole says this case could set a dangerous precedent.
Lawyers for probation and parole say they might ask a higher court to force Scherzer to move. The principal at Holy Cross High School says she was unaware Father Scherzer was living next door. But Sister Mary Ann says she's not concerned because the convicted sex offender has no direct access to her school or students.