No criminal charges were ever lodged against Sicoli.
However, a 2005 Philadelphia grand jury report found that despite numerous complaints about his alleged misconduct with boys and even warnings from other priests, the church transferred Sicoli to different parishes as scandal pursued him. Diocese officials did nothing to intervene, the report stated. Instead, they named him associate director of the CCD youth program for the entire Philadelphia area.
That appointment was made, the report states, "even though the priest's file clearly showed that he used the Church's youth groups to reward, groom, and manipulate his targeted boys."
Technically, Sicoli will remain a priest.
The church teaches that there is an "indelible priestly character" taken on by the soul during ordination, said Msgr. Thomas Green, an expert in canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington.
"Once you've been ordained, it's irrevocable," Green said. "It's similar to being baptized. Doctrine states that it cannot be set aside. It transcends whatever human beings may do."
But Sicoli will no longer be authorized to perform any priestly functions, Donna Farrell, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said in a statement released yesterday.
Sicoli, who has past addresses in Philadelphia and Sea Isle City, N.J., could not be reached yesterday.
Farrell said Sicoli resides in a private home outside the archdiocese. She said his local bishop and county law enforcement authorities have been notified of his presence.
In 1990, Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua named Sicoli pastor of Our Lady of Holy Souls in North Philadelphia. Other parish postings followed despite numerous complaints that Sicoli kept boys living with him in the rectory, according to the grand jury report. Bevilacqua, who stepped down in 2003, never asked the archdiocese to investigate claims against Sicoli.
