A Pennsylvania grand jury report released Tuesday reveals accusations of sexual abuse against 301 priests whose actions went unchecked for decades in dioceses across Pennsylvania, including Allentown.
Attached to the grand jury’s report are roughly 470 pages of responses – from the dioceses that were investigated, to individual priests who were named.
In the Allentown diocese, attorneys representing retired Monsignor Thomas Benestad, former priest Francis Fromholzer and the late Monsignor Anthony Muntone all submitted responses in which their clients denied the grand jury’s findings against them.
Thomas Benestad
Benestad accused the panel of falsely implying that he retired because of the allegations.
“Monsignor Benestad has never done anything that would be deemed inappropriate with any individual,” his attorney, John Waldron wrote. “Monsignor Benestad has never done anything that would be deemed immoral by the church with any individual. Monsignor Benestad has never done anything illegal with any person as judged by any civil or criminal authority.”
Francis Fromholzer
Fromholzer denied the allegations against him through a letter from his attorney, Christopher G. Furlong.
“As evidenced in the Report itself, Mr. Fromholzer denies these allegations of abuse,” Furlong wrote.
Anthony Muntone
Muntone, named by the grand jury as a church leader who mishandled child sex abuse complaints, denied in his written response that he enabled priests to abuse children. Muntone died in May.
“It is Monsignor Muntone’s position that during the time frame mentioned in the investigating grand jury he was not in a position of authority to appoint priests to various positions in the Archdiocese of Allentown,” wrote Waldron, who was also his lawyer. “It is Monsignor Muntone’s position that any action he may have taken during the time frame alleged in the Investigative Grand Jury was results of meetings and telephone contact with legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Allentown.”
Reached by telephone, Waldron said the responses speak for themselves, and he declined further comment.
“I don’t know what is going to happen at this point in time given the statute of limitations and the age of the alleged victims,” Waldron said of his clients. “But they took it very seriously and that’s why we fashioned the responses that we did. And we stand by the responses that we did.”
Waldron said he also represented the Rev. A. Gregory Uhrig, who did not file a response. According to the grand jury, Uhrig was placed on leave in 2010 by Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey after allegations he sexually abused a teenager from 1978 to 1980 that he met while assigned to St. Anthony school in Easton.
