Catholic Priest

PITTSBURGH - A suspended Catholic priest expressed remorse to everyone but the young boys depicted in pornography Wednesday before he was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for collecting more than 5,000 images of child porn on his computer, in books and on compact discs. The sentence that the Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 63, received was more than the five-year mandatory minimum sentence he sought but less than the 10-year maximum he faced. "I served the diocese for 35 years.

One of the most cherished ideas among faithful Catholics is that when a man is ordained a priest, he remains a priest forever. Forever is a long, long time. But what if said priest gives up his priesthood and gets married? Or what if he just doesn't want to be a priest any longer? Is there no way out? A man or woman can give up almost any other profession in life. But once a priest, always a priest. A lawyer can be disbarred, a doctor can have his license revoked, a cop can turn in his badge - but no matter what he does or says, a Catholic priest remains a priest.

The Rev. Joseph Turner, 73, a Catholic priest who grew up in Philadelphia orphanages, then helped smuggle orphans out of Vietnam during the fall of Saigon, died Monday of cancer at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital. Father Joe, who belonged to the Society of the Divine Savior, a missionary order of priests, lived in Northeast Philadelphia. He was an Army chaplain stationed in Hawaii when Saigon fell in April 1975. He had served two tours of duty in Vietnam, in 1968 and 1970, and had found American homes for 12 orphans during that time.

IN THE April 23 issue of the Daily News, there was a small blurb of a story about the Lutheran Church paying $37 million in a sexual assault lawsuit. The perpetrator was a Lutheran minister who was sentenced to a long prison term. The victims were small boys, making the minister a pedophile. This story appeared on Page 77. Had the minister been a Catholic priest, the story would have made the front page. The media claims that it does not bash the Catholic Church. Get real! Frank Flicker Philadelphia

THE REV. Angus N. Carney, a Roman Catholic priest who served parishes throughout the region and elsewhere in the country in more than 60 years in the priesthood, died Thursday at age 96. He was living at the St. Thomas Monastery, in Villanova. Carney taught at Monsignor Bonner High School, in Drexel Hill, from 1970 to 1980. His pastoral assignments in the Philadelphia area included St. Augustine's, St. Rita's and Our Mother of Consolation parishes in Philadelphia; St. Denis, in Havertown; and St. Genevieve, in Flourtown.

After years of listening hard to rock music - and puzzling over evil influences that might rot a child's mind or turn him from God - the Rev. Don Kimball has a simple message for parents: Don't worry. There has "always been the cry that rock is destroying our youth, but less than 1 percent of popular rock is blatantly satanic," the Catholic priest said before meeting with a Yardley group of 75 last weekend. A radio host in Santa Rosa, Calif., Father Kimball told the group at St. Ignatius Church, "I play everything.

The Rev. Francis P. O'Reilly, 81, pastor emeritus of St. John the Evangelist Church in Morrisville and known as "the blacksmith priest" for his skill with wrought iron, died Thursday at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital. Father O'Reilly spent more than 50 years in the priesthood as a teacher, pastor and radio and television-show host. But the priest, who grew up on a dairy farm in Feasterville and learned iron-work from his blacksmith father, was better known for the candlesticks, boot scrapers, picture frames and other wrought-iron objects he produced.

The Rev. Francis R. Duffy confesses that at one time he was "the outstandingly worst practitioner in the world. Nothing I did worked. " What Duffy practiced - or at least tried to - was hypnosis. And he's right. Everything he did was wrong. Why, he wasn't even hypnotizable. So Duffy chucked the whole stupor bit and went back to playing the saxophone. But then along came Loretta, a little girl he happened to meet on a beach in South Jersey in the summer of '61. Today, Father Francis Raymond Duffy, director of St. Joseph's House for Homeless Industrious Boys in Holmesburg, is hypnotic history.

A 35-year-old Delaware man filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that a priest who was a Catholic school principal sexually abused him weekly for nine years when he was a schoolboy in Wilmington. The now retired priest, the Rev. James W. O'Neill, was reassigned from Salesianum High School to Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster soon after the first allegation was lodged in 1985. O'Neill has not been accused of any improprieties at Archbishop Wood, where he was principal from 1986 to 1991.

A Catholic priest was awaiting arraignment last night at the Police Administration Building following his arrest earlier yesterday in North Philadelphia's notorious Fairhill drug zone on a possession-of-cocaine charge. The Rev. Nicholas J. Martino, 41, was a passenger inside a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria parked at Hancock and Cambria Streets at 2:08 a.m. when police officers took notice of the vehicle and the two men sitting in it, authorities said. Father Martino had been "released" from his priestly duties two weeks ago because of an ongoing substance-abuse problem, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Cathy Matusiak.

IN TAKING THE NAME Francis, the new pope hearkens back eight centuries to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most revered figures in the Catholic Church. St. Francis, born Giovanni di Bernardone, was something of a playboy in his youth and was a soldier before a vision sent him into a life of poverty and preaching. He was never a Catholic priest, but he founded the Franciscan Order and the Order of St. Clare for nuns. He was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228.

Services are set for Friday for the Rev. Alphonse T. Mascherino, 69, a Downingtown native who founded the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel in Shanksville, Pa., after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He died Friday, Feb. 15, of cancer at a hospice in Somerset, Pa., where he lived. "Father Al" attended Bishop Shanahan High School through the 11th grade before graduating from St. Mary Seminary, formerly in Penndel. His brother, Jim, said that after the attacks, Father Mascherino felt that although a national monument at Shanksville was in the works, the relatives of those killed in the crash should have a place to go in the meantime.

JURY DELIBERATIONS began Friday afternoon in the trial of a Catholic priest and a former Catholic-schoolteacher who are accused of sexually assaulting the same altar boy in the late 1990s. The Common Pleas jury got the case after hearing closing arguments from Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti and defense attorney Michael J. McGovern, who represents the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66. Defense attorney Burton Rose, who represents Bernard Shero, 50, gave his closing argument Thursday.

PITTSBURGH - A suspended Catholic priest expressed remorse to everyone but the young boys depicted in pornography Wednesday before he was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for collecting more than 5,000 images of child porn on his computer, in books and on compact discs. The sentence that the Rev. Bartley Sorensen, 63, received was more than the five-year mandatory minimum sentence he sought but less than the 10-year maximum he faced. "I served the diocese for 35 years.

A PHILADELPHIA judge Tuesday reinstated three felony charges against a Catholic priest who is accused of forcing oral sex on a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997. Father Andrew McCormick sat stoically at the defense table as Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick held him for trial after a brief hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault. Those charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simmons following an August preliminary hearing, during which the now-24-year-old alleged victim testified that McCormick, 56, straddled him and put his penis on the victim's lips and on his teeth.

A Philadelphia judge Tuesday reinstated three felony charges against a Catholic priest who is accused of forcing oral sex on a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997. Father Andrew McCormick sat stoically at the defense table as Common Pleas Judge Paula Patrick held him for trial after a brief hearing on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and statutory sexual assault. Those charges were dismissed by Municipal Judge Karen Y. Simmons following an August preliminary hearing, during which the now-24-year-old alleged victim testified that McCormick, 56, straddled him and put his penis on the victim's lips and on his teeth.

THE REV. Angus N. Carney, a Roman Catholic priest who served parishes throughout the region and elsewhere in the country in more than 60 years in the priesthood, died Thursday at age 96. He was living at the St. Thomas Monastery, in Villanova. Carney taught at Monsignor Bonner High School, in Drexel Hill, from 1970 to 1980. His pastoral assignments in the Philadelphia area included St. Augustine's, St. Rita's and Our Mother of Consolation parishes in Philadelphia; St. Denis, in Havertown; and St. Genevieve, in Flourtown.

T HREE FELONY sex charges were thrown out Thursday against Andrew McCormick - a Catholic priest arrested last month and charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 - after a dispute in court over the definition of "penetration. " The alleged victim, now 24, testified that when McCormick was assigned to St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg, the priest straddled his chest and tried to force him to perform oral sex. But Municipal Judge Karen Yvette Simmons discharged the most serious counts: involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and felony sexual assault.

A PHILADELPHIA judge on Monday denied bail to Monsignor William Lynn, the Catholic priest who was sentenced last month to serve three to six years in state prison for his role in enabling another priest to sexually abuse an altar boy. After a brief hearing, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina said Lynn, 61, had no constitutional right to receive bail while his case is being appealed. Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, was not at the hearing.

JAMES BRENNAN, the former Catholic priest accused of attempting to rape a 14-year-old boy, appeared downbeat but determined Monday to prove his innocence after learning that the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office plans to retry him. "I feel badly about it because, personally, I don't think it's necessary, but it's the commonwealth's decision to do what they do," Brennan, 49, said outside the Criminal Justice Center. "All I can do is respond to it. " Brennan said his greatest concern was for his family and his attorney, William Brennan, because, he said, "they shouldn't have to go through this again.