Rev. Donald E. Shelander, a retired priest put on administrative leave in March 2006 by Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk as a result of child abuse allegations, has been restored to active ministry after a church court ruled that he was not proven guilty of the alleged offenses.
None of the judges of the three-member tribunal were priests of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Their decision was affirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican in Rome.
A man accused Shelander of inappropriately touching him when he was a teen in the 1970s and 1980s.
Shelander was a pastor at Saint Mary’s in Urbana, Ohio at the time.
Shelander retired in 2002 and also served in parishes in Bellefontaine and Newport, Ohio.
Shelander has not been able to celebrate the sacraments or present himself as a priest in any way since the accusations.
As a retired priest, Fr. Shelander will not be given an assignment by the Archdiocese but is now free to exercise his priestly ministry.
For as status report on clerics accused of child abuse, click
here.
Archbishop Pilarczyk urges anyone who was abused as a child by a priest or any other representative of the Archdiocese, or knows someone who was, to report the abuse immediately to the secular legal authorities and to the Archdiocese’s Victim Assistance Coordinator, Sister Mary Garke, at (513) 421-3131 or 1 (800) 686-2724.
The Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (SNAP) released the following statement Monday:
Given the Catholic hierarchy's long-standing record of recklessness and secrecy in child sex abuse cases, it's hard to have any confidence in the archdiocese's alleged 'investigation.'
We hope that anyone with information or suspicions of sexual misdeeds - either by Shelander or any church employee, past or present - will find the courage to come forward and contact independent sources of help, like support groups, therapists and law enforcement.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 20 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
