Priest

An involuntary manslaughter charge was refiled yesterday against the priest accused of providing alcohol to a drunken Pittsburgh football player who fell to his death through a church ceiling in Homestead, Pa. The Rev. Henry Krawczyk was recharged, 1 day after the Allegheny County coroner's office ruled Billy Gaines' death was an accident and dismissed the charge. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said the case was too important to be dismissed, and a jury should be allowed to decide whether Krawczyk is responsible for Gaines' death.

In 1944, when Poland lay crushed by war, Albert Ostatek paid a German army commander $1,000 to keep his father off a cattle train bound for a concentration camp. "It was a business deal for the life of my father," said the Rev. Ostatek, today a 72-year-old priest at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa (CHEN-sto-hova) in Doylestown. The deal done, Ostatek's father was released by the Germans to his farm south of Warsaw and Ostatek returned quietly to the monastery in Poland where he was one year from ordination.

A Philadelphia-born Catholic priest is the inspiration for a made-for-TV movie that will air in prime time this season on ABC-TV. The Rev. Ellwood Kieser provides both spiritual inspiration and financial support as executive producer of "We Are The Children," a movie about the Ethiopian famine with Ally Sheedy ("The Breakfast Club, "St. Elmo's Fire") and Ted Danson ("Cheers"). Filming in northern Kenya is scheduled to finish on September 25 for this Paulist Pictures production.

After 30 years, Monsignor Salvatore J. Adamo's final Daily News column appears today. This ends what is most certainly the longest-running newspaper column in Philadelphia history. Culling the wit and wisdom of Sal Adamo has not been easy, and it's quite possible we've missed some of the choicest. But the quotes that follow exemplify this good and gentle man's courage, humor and perceptiveness. On human behavior People don't live on lonely islands. We live together in groups and our lifestyles have influence and impact on one another, for good and for ill. Consequently, a well-ordered community will set limits to what people may do, even in the privacy of their homes.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia plans to suspend a priest nearly two decades after church leaders learned he had sex with a girl, 17, according to a source familiar with the matter. Msgr. Richard T. Powers, 76, who had served in parishes across the region and was most recently assigned to Epiphany of Our Lord in South Philadelphia, will be placed on administrative leave pending a review, said the source, who asked not to be identified discussing a personnel issue. Powers' suspension comes after his name emerged on a newly disclosed 1994 internal church memo that listed 35 area priests suspected or accused of abusing children.

Two men tried to rob an East Camden priest Christmas morning but fled empty-handed when the priest slammed the rectory door in their faces. No one was injured. Camden police said yesterday that Father Thaddeus Sapio, 53, was returning to the St. Anthony parish rectory in the 2800 block of River Road about 1:20 a.m. after checking to see that the church was secure. As he walked past a row of bushes, two young men jumped out. One pointed a gun at the priest. They demanded money, but Father Sapio told them he had none, police said.

The first bullet fired by a 15-year-old wielding an automatic pistol hit the priest in the back and came out his shoulder. The second shot whizzed past the priest's head, so close he could feel its hot breath. The Rev. Marc Shinn survived what authorities contend was a brutal attempt by three young drug-crazed carjackers to murder him earlier this year in Camden after abducting him near his home in Philadelphia. The bearded Russian Orthodox priest from St. Andrew's Church on 5th Street near Fairmount Avenue yesterday watched in silence as one of his attackers, a 20-year-old man, pleaded guilty to carjacking, kidnapping and related gun charges in federal court.

In a tape-recorded statement played for a Camden County jury yesterday, the Rev. John J. McElroy spoke in graphic detail of two incidents of sexual contact with a teenage boy. "I knew it was wrong," the 30-year-old priest known as "Father Jack" says on the May 1988 tape of the incidents that allegedly took place in the rectory of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Barrington. "Do you have a problem?" Camden County investigator Reginald Beckett asks Father McElroy on the tape. "Oh, I'd say that a counselor would do me good," the priest replies on the tape.

No evidence could be found to substantiate sex-abuse accusations against the Rev. John Liggio, a priest from Malvern Preparatory School, by a former student, the Chester County District Attorney's Office announced yesterday. "Investigators were unable to corroborate in any way the allegations made by the former student against the priest," according to a news release from District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll. James H. Stewart, Malvern's head of school, responded to the news with a prepared statement: "We are delighted to hear that the D.A.'s Office has decided not to press charges against Father Liggio," he said.

MIAMI - A Miami jury returned a $100 million verdict yesterday against a retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys over many years - an amount unlikely to ever be collected, but one a victim's attorney said sends a strong message to child predators. "Now we know what a jury thinks about these cases," said Jeff Herman, who represented Andres Sousana in the case against the priest, Neil Doherty. "No. 2, it sends a message that we hope will protect other children.