Former Lancaster priest pleads guilty to sexually abusing two boys: report

A defrocked Catholic priest, who served in Lancaster 30 years ago, has pleaded guilty in York County Court to molesting two altar boys in Harrisburg.

John Allen, 76, of West Manchester Township, York County, admitted to molesting the boys over their clothes while at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church in Penbrook, YDR.com reports.

As part of a plea agreement, Allen is set to be sentenced to five years' probation on Jan. 21, 2021 on charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors.

The boys were between 10 and 12 at the time of the sexual abuse took place, but it was not reported to law enforcement until more than a decade later, according to the report.

The Diocese of Harrisburg removed Allen from St. Margaret Mary’s Church in February 2002 after a man reported that the priest had abused him as a boy. Pope Benedict XVI formally removed Allen from the priesthood four years later.

Allen, who served at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lancaster from 1986 to 1992, was one of more than 300 priests, deacons and seminarians named last year in a grand jury report that documented sexual misconduct in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

In January 1992, while Allen was a priest at St. Joseph Church, he was charged with soliciting sex from an undercover Lancaster police officer, according to the report.

The report says parishioners notified the diocese of the arrest and of stories of Allen inviting altar boys to his room.

After a nine-month leave of absence in 1992, Allen was assigned to parishes in Cumberland and Dauphin counties before resigning in 2002.

In 2003, according to the grand jury report, a man alleged that Allen, while a priest in Lancaster, paid him for sex on several occasions.

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Crédito: LANCASTERONLINE | Staff