He was never charged criminally, but many parents and residents in the parish blame Sicoli for the school's eventual closure.
Parent Maria Capetola said that Sicoli's image next to children is "a disgrace" and "the last slap in the face that they're [Holy Spirit] going to give us."
Capetola said that she was "livid" when she saw the photo Tuesday morning and, believing it was a mistake, went to see Holy Spirit's current pastor, the Rev. Mark Kunigonis, at the rectory.
"Why would you put a pervert in the yearbook with innocent children?" she asked Kunigonis.
"Well, he was a pastor and he wasn't convicted," Kunigonis said, according to Capetola.
"You're sick. You're a sick man," she told him.
Kunigonis declined to comment and said a letter would be sent home with students for their parents Tuesday. None of the parents interviewed by the Daily News claimed to have received it Tuesday night.
Leslie Davila, director of the Archdiocese's Office of Child and Youth Protection, called the photo's publication "regrettable."
"When an image or a name of a known child-abuser is published, it causes some very real wounds and it reopens wounds for victims," Davila said. "The inclusion was regrettable and may have caused pain for victims of abuse or acted as a traumatic cue for people."
The allegations against Sicoli were brought up by prosecutors in the case against Monsignor William Lynn, whose fate is being mulled by a jury. He is one of 21 priests whose secret files were shown to jurors to prove that Lynn ignored or didn't investigate signs that priests were sexually abusing children. n
Contact Regina Medina at 215-854-5985, medinar@phillynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @reginamedina.
