Priest

HIS LOW, CALM voice and composed demeanor belied the fact that the young man was talking in open court of having been raped by two Catholic priests and a former Catholic-school teacher. For more than two hours Tuesday, the dark-suited man, 24, sat just feet from a Philadelphia Common Pleas jury, recounting events that he alleged began in 1998 when he was a fifth-grader and 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome Parish, in the Northeast. Speaking without tears but with bitterness in his voice, he explained to Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti how he had been raised to view churchmen, such as those on trial for allegedly assaulting him. "They are servants of God," said the tall, thin man, who lives and works in Florida, and whose name the Daily News is withholding.

The trial of a priest and a former teacher charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at a Northeast Philadelphia parish opened Monday with prosecutors portraying the men as predators who turned a happy-go-lucky honors student into a despondent teenager who was expelled from school, attempted suicide, and turned to drugs. Defense attorneys questioned the credibility of the accuser, saying he had told many different versions of the abuse since reporting it in 2009. They described him as a "damaged" man whose personality shift was the result of drug addiction.

THE CRIMINAL TRIAL of a priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy began Monday with the prosecutor calling the defendants "predators" who subjected the boy to "the most vile acts. " Conversely, defense attorneys painted the now-adult accuser as a drug-addicted liar angling for a payout. As their attorneys spoke of them, defendants Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, and Bernard Shero, 49, sat stone-faced and spoke only when they stood to plead not guilty.

A former Catholic chaplain at Graterford State Prison says state officials defamed him, wrongfully fired him and tried to block his unemployment benefits after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia suspended him in 2011 amid a review of past misconduct by priests. The Rev. Robert Povish, 47, of Boyertown, was ultimately removed last year from active ministry by Archbishop Charles Chaput for what the prelate called violations of "boundary issues" with children. But in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court, Povish accuses prison officials of ignoring his spotless record there over a decade and savaging his reputation by portraying him as a child-sex abuser, something he says he is not. "To this day, Reverend Povish has never been accused of sexual misconduct.

The trial of a priest and former parochial-school teacher charged with sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at a Northeast parish in the late 1990s opened this morning in Common Pleas Court, with prosecutors portraying the men as predators who shattered the boy's childhood, and caused him to turn to drugs to numb his pain. Defense attorneys told jurors that the boy, identified in a grand jury report as "Billy Doe," has told many different versions of the abuse since reporting it in 2010.

Three women and a man were picked Monday as jurors for the Philadelphia trial of a priest and a former Catholic-school teacher charged with sexually assaulting a Northeast Philadelphia altar boy in the late 1990s. The four were selected from about 75 prospective jurors culled from a panel of 130 on the first day of jury selection in the Common Pleas Court trial of the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero. Judge Ellen Ceisler, prosecutors, and defense lawyers are to resume selecting 12 jurors and several alternates Tuesday at the Criminal Justice Center.

The Rev. Canon James Elliott Purdy, 99, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New Jersey for 74 years, died Sunday, Jan. 6, at the Evergreens, a continuing care community in Moorestown. Canon Purdy formally retired in 1984 after serving as rector of Grace Church in Merchantville for 18 years. But he never left the ministry that defined his life. Until recently, he assisted in weekly worship at the Evergreens chapel, and provided a 24/7 listening post for fellow residents in need of his counsel - not to mention the healing power of his jokes.

Paul Michael Parchinski was a chemical engineer who over a 34-year career worked his way up the echelons of the petroleum industry, retiring from Citgo in 2001 as senior environmental adviser. It was then that he decided to take a job with an employer even mightier than the oil giants. Mr. Parchinski became Deacon Parchinski, serving his home parish, Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church in Woodbury. Instead of hazmat emergencies and executive meetings, he was called to assist priests; perform weddings, baptisms, and funerals; tend to the sick; and console the bereft.

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.