GLENDALE, Ohio — The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a local priest after the Archdiocese of Cincinnati said a computer in his possession may have accessed "concerning websites."
Fr. Ed Burns Jr. recently left his parish without explanation. He is the pastor of the St. Carlo Acutis Parish, which includes St. Gabriel Church and school in Glendale, St. Michael Church and School in Sharonville, and St. John Church in West Chester.
On Tuesday, a sheriff’s spokesperson confirmed an active investigation into Burns but declined to comment further.
A spokesperson for Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich stated that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati contacted her office on Aug. 28 regarding Burns. She forwarded the communication to the sheriff’s office the same day.
Pillich’s office declined to offer details about the nature of the allegations.
Parishioners say a vague announcement about Burns’ absence was made the weekend of Sept. 6 and 7.
“At the end of Mass, there was a general announcement that Father Ed Burns was placed on administrative leave pending investigation, and there was no further information,” Angie Stofko, a parishioner at St. Michael Church who has a son at the school, told WCPO last Friday.
Several worried parents contacted Teresa Dinwiddie-Herrmann, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection.
“Parents are concerned because they’re not getting answers as to why their priest was removed,” Dinwiddie-Herrmann said. “The archdiocese should alert parents right away if there is a criminal concern.”
Parents want to know about the allegations, so they can talk to their children and know what red flags to look for, Dinwiddie-Herrmann said.
But parents said their calls to the parish and the archdiocese have been frustrating.
“We’ve been told by our parish office to stop calling the parish office. To stop asking for information. They have nothing to give us. So where do we turn? We don’t know what to do,” Stofko said. “Yes, he’s gone. But for what? We have no clue."
Burns did not return a request for comment.
Stofko said she was a longtime Facebook friend of Burns. But he recently took down his personal Facebook page and deleted all parishioners as friends from his professional page, she said.
“Parents need to continue to ask the right questions and not be deflated if they don’t get the answers right away. Understand that these investigations do take time,” Dinwiddie-Herrmann said. “I do believe that because of your reporting on this, that has helped parents realize that they should be breaking away from the culture of silence."
We reached out to the archdiocese, which provided a statement Tuesday evening saying in part, "At St. Michael the Archangel Parish, where Fr. Burns has been pastor since 2018, a computer that had been used by Fr. Burns was being repurposed. During that process, an employee uncovered the possibility that concerning websites were accessed, including pornography sites.
"This information was brought to the attention of the Pastoral Center and then reported by the Pastoral Center to law enforcement for their review."
The archdiocese said Burns was placed on administrative leave. During leave, Burns will not be present in parish offices and will not be on school campuses.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Burns graduated from Mount St. Mary's Seminary & School of Theology and was ordained in 2004. He then served as parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church for two years.
Afterward, Burns spent many years as a Catholic chaplain at Wittenberg University and director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Wright State University.
Burns began serving as pastor at St. Michael in 2018 and assumed oversight of the other two churches in 2022.
“There was this notion that all of this was a problem of the past,” Dinwiddie-Herrmann said. “What we have seen in the past few years … very obviously it’s not an issue of the past.”
This is the latest in a string of controversies for the archdiocese.
Less than a week later, that priest, Fr. Martin Bachman, admitted to viewing adult pornography and playing “video games of an inappropriate nature,” but never at the office or on a parish-owned device.
In 2024, a former seminary student pleaded guilty to charges tied to child sexual abuse materials. He repeatedly uploaded videos of naked children being sexually abused using the IP address of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati. A judge sentenced Broderick Witt to five years of probation.
In January, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill making it a crime for predators to groom a child for sexual abuse, using a pattern of behavior.
Child advocates credited the WCPO 9 I-Team’s reporting on two former Archdiocese of Cincinnati priests with getting attention from lawmakers and the public.
“After your Father Cutcher reports, there was definitely an uptick of parents calling the statehouse and asking lawmakers to do something,” said Rebecca Surendorff, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection.
You can read the archdiocese's entire statement here:
