The Diocese of Greensburg is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

centered in

Greensburg, Pennsylvania Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city lies within the Laurel Highlands and the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau (ecoregion), W ...

, with 78 parishes in

Armstrong Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong ...

, Fayette,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, and Westmoreland counties in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

in the

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. The diocese was founded on March 10, 1951 and is led by bishop

Larry J. Kulick Larry James Kulick (born February 24, 1966) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, Diocese of Greensburg in Pennsylvania since 2021. He became the first priest ...

as the 6th Bishop of Greensburg.

Bishops

Bishops of the diocese and their tenures of service:

Bishops of Greensburg

# Hugh L. Lamb (1951-1960) # William G. Connare (1960-1987) # Anthony G. Bosco (1987-2004) # Lawrence E. Brandt (2004-2015) # Edward C. Malesic (2015–2020), appointed Bishop of Cleveland. #

(2021-present)

Former auxiliary bishop

* Norbert F. Gaughan (1975–1984), appointed Bishop of Gary

Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

Cyril John Vogel Cyril John Vogel (January 15, 1905 – October 4, 1979) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Salina from 1965 until his death in 1979. Biography The second youngest of ten children, Cyril Vogel was born in Pi ...

, appointed Bishop of Salina in 1965 *

Giuseppe De Andrea Giuseppe De Andrea (20 April 1930 – 29 June 2016) was an Italian-born prelate of the Catholic Church who spent twenty years as a pastor in the United States and then twenty-five years in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Early years Gi ...

, appointed

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

and

Titular Archbishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

in 2001 and later Assessor of the

Order of the Holy Sepulchre The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, links=yes, OESSH), also called Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic Church, Catholic order of ...

Lawrence T. Persico Lawrence Thomas Persico (born November 21, 1950, Monessen, Pennsylvania) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania since 2012. Biography Early life Lawrence Persico ...

, appointed Bishop of Erie in 2012

Parishes

As of 2017, there are seventy-eight operating parishes within the Diocese of Greensburg; thirty-eight of these operate in a partnered configuration. A diocesan strategic planning process began in 2006, which has resulted in closures of parishes and chapels, as well as partnering of parishes that have remained open, with the last of these changes occurring in 2013.

Schools

There are 18 educational facilities spread throughout the geographical terrain of the diocesan limits. There are 2 junior-senior high schools, 12 diocesan elementary schools and 3 non-diocesan Catholic schools

High schools

* Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School is located in Connellsville Township in northern Fayette County and serves the southern half of the diocesan territory. A Middle School concept was added at the beginning of the 2007-08 School Term, bringing the grade levels served at this facility 7-12. * Greensburg Central Catholic Junior-Senior High School is located in Hempfield Township in central Westmoreland County and serves the central and northern sections of the diocesan territory. This school serves grades 7-12.

Grand jury investigation of clergy sex abuse, lawsuits and diocese's response

In early 2016, a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

investigation, led by

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Attorney General

Josh Shapiro Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the Pennsylvania Attorney General since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the governor-elect of Pennsylvania. Raised in Montgomery ...

, began an inquiry into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in six Pennsylvania dioceses: Greensburg,

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Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and

Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

. The

Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

and the

Archdiocese of Philadelphia The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Philadelphia is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. It covers the City and County of Philadelphia as well a ...

were not included, as they had been the subjects of earlier investigations. According to ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', in 2017 the Diocese of Harrisburg and the Diocese of Greensburg attempted to shut down the grand jury investigation. On July 27, 2018, the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme J ...

ordered that a redacted copy of the grand jury report be released to the public; this release occurred in August 2018. On July 31, 2018, John T. Sweeney, a former priest in the Diocese of Greenburg, pleaded guilty to molesting a 4th grade boy at some point between September 1991 and June 1992. Immediately following Sweeney's plea, the Diocese of Greensburg made a statement pledging future cooperation. In the statement, which was reported by

Crux Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

on August 4, the Diocese of Greensburg agreed to continue educating "both children and adults in parishes and schools of the Diocese of Greensburg on how to spot and report suspected abuse." The Diocese also agreed to recommend reporting incidents of sexual abuse to the PA ChildLine and report any alleged incident of sexual abuse to "PA Childline and the appropriate district attorney." On August 9, 2018, Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic issued an apology on behalf the Diocese, acknowledged there were numerous reports of sex abuse of children between the 1950s and 1980s, and announced that the Diocese would release the names of the accused clergy when the grand jury report is published. The grand jury report was published on August 14, 2018 and showed that of the 301 priests accused of sexual abuse in the six dioceses, only 20 clergy were from the Diocese of Greensburg. The report also showed that one of the accused in the Diocese of Greensburg also impregnated a 17 year old girl. The priest then covered up the pregnancy by marrying the girl after forging the head pastor's name on a marriage certificate and then filing for divorce months later. Despite fathering a child with a minor and being married and divorced, the priest still remained in the ministry. On December 21, 2018, Sweeney was given a 11 1/2 month to 5 year prison sentence, which he immediately began serving. In October 2019, one of Sweeney's victims who he admitted to sexually abusing filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Greensburg. The victim, who chose to remain anonymous, sought a $1,000,000 settlement. Roger Sinclair was

laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The t ...

in 2002 after being accused of sexually abusing children in the Diocese of Greensburg. In 2018, Sinclair was convicted of sexually abusing disabled boys in the state of Oregon. On August 13, 2020, two sexual misconduct lawsuits were filed against the Diocese of Greensburg. One of the new lawsuits was filed on behalf of a former Blairsville man who claimed at age 11 he was molested by Rev. Giles Nealen, who died in 1996, at the St. Benedict Parish in Marguerite during the summer of 1968. The other lawsuit claimed the Rev. Leonard Bealko molested a 12-year-old altar boy more than 200 times over four years that ended in 1978 at Transfiguration Church in Mt. Pleasant, his home and a church-owned rectory in Clymer. On August 26, 2020, police arrested Fayette County priest Andrew Kawecki for sexually abusing a altar boy on multiple occasions from 2004 to 2007, beginning when the alleged victim was 11. His arrest warrant was issued by Shapiro. The same day, Bishop Malesic, who was leaving the Diocese of Greensburg to become Bishop of Cleveland, announced that the Diocese of Greensburg found sex abuse allegations against Rev. Emil Payer, who had been convicted of stealing money his South Huntingdon church, to be "credible." On June 22, 2020, Malesic and the Diocese of Greensburg were both named as defendants in a new sex abuse lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by a man alleging that both parties covered up reports that former Diocese of Greensburg priest Rev. Joseph L. Sredzinski, who served in Fayette County and died in 2015, started sexually abusing him in 1991, when he was 11 years old, and continued to do so until he was 17 years old. On November 20, 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a petition filed by the Diocese of Greensburg to grant a stay which would've delayed an ongoing lawsuit against the Diocese.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roman Catholic Diocese Of Greensburg Christian organizations established in 1951 Greensburg Greensburg 1951 establishments in Pennsylvania