Philly Priest accused of child molestation found ‘unsuitable for ministry’

A Philadelphia Catholic priest who was placed on administrative leave in January after being accused of sexually abusing a minor in the 1980s has been found to be “unsuitable for ministry,” the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.

Monsignor Joseph L. Logrip, 74, who had last worked as a chaplain at Camilla Hall, a retirement home for women in Malvern, Chester County, and as a weekend assistant at St. Peter Parish in West Brandywine, Chester County, was ruled to be unfit to serve as a priest after an investigation by the Archdiocesan Office of Investigation.

The results of the investigation were then forwarded to the Archdiocesan Professional Responsibilities Review Board, which recommended that Logrip be declared unsuitable, the church said in a statement. Archbishop Charles Chaput accepted that recommendation, and the case will now be sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, the statement said.

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Logrip, who was ordained in 1972 and served at numerous parishes, schools and offices in the Philadelphia area, was first accused of sexually abusing a minor in 2011. He was placed on administrative leave while the charge was investigated and cleared to return to work in 2014. He has not been criminally charged.

Catholics4Change, a church watchdog group, said the announcement about Logrip was long overdue but marred by the glaring omission of a non-archdiocesan Catholic school where he once worked.

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“This comes a decade after a complaint wasn’t taken seriously. We hope to God no more children were harmed in that time span,” said Susan Matthews, publisher of Catholics4Change’s blog.

She noted that the six-page news release announcing the result’s of the archdiocese’s investigation did not include the fact that Logrip served as chaplain and Mass celebrant at St. Aloysius Boys School in Bryn Mawr from 1978 to the mid-90s.

Because that Catholic school is privately owned is no reason for it not to have been included among the 16 places Logrip worked that are named in the archdiocese’s news release, Matthews said.

“The archdiocese continues to omit this information in their press releases or announcements. If it had somehow managed to escape their attention, we’ve informed them. We believe it is their moral duty to inform anyone who could have been impacted,” she said.

» READ MORE: Pa. Catholic Church sex abuse report names hundreds of priests, accuses leaders of cover-up: ‘They hid it all.’

A call to church spokesperson Ken Gavin was not returned.

The Church asks that clergy sexual abuse incidents be reported by calling 1-888-800-8780 or emailing philavac@archphila.org.