A teen sex scandal obliged him or her from his church. Now he’s opened a teen pregnancy counseling center.
The Gianna House, a Christian-run teen pregnancy center outside Detroit, supplies a safe haven for pregnant teens. Unfortunately, its co-founder is barred from functioning along with the Catholic church, after he allegedly abused a teen girl in his parish.
The Archdiocese of Detroit barred Reverend Kenneth Kaucheck from public ministry in 2009, after a woman accused him or her of molesting her as a teenager in the 1970s, once he acted as her counselor. Yet Kaucheck’s ban hasn’t stayed away from him or her from functioning along with teenagers. His brand-new role as co-founder of the Gianna Residence has actually him or her leading an organization that advertises safety and advice for pregnant teens and brand-new mothers.
The sexual abuse charges versus Kaucheck went public in 2009, once an alleged victim gained an official report to the Catholic church. The alleged abuse had taken place some 33 years earlier, she said, once Kaucheck was her counselor at the Guardian Angels Catholic Church outside Detroit. She was prompted to report the decades-old abuse after Kaucheck scheduled an appointment at the doctor’s office where she worked, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2009.
The church banned Kaucheck from public ministry, forcing him or her to resign from both Michigan churches where he worked. Police did not press charges versus Kaucheck, as his alleged victim had been 16, the legal age of consent in Michigan.
But at the very least one witness said the church had been aware of the allegations versus Kaucheck also prior to 2009. Elizabeth Sayraf, a former receptionist at the Guardian Angels church said the victim reported the abuse in 1976, creating plane tickets from a quest she had taken along with Kaucheck to Florida. Sayraf told the Free Press that she had reported the victim’s allegations to church officials, that rapidly reassigned Kaucheck to a church in Dearborn, Michigan. He did not face any sort of disciplinary action.
Now, also along with his ministry ban, Kaucheck appears to have actually located his means spine in to faith-based counseling.
The Gianna House, a Christian-run source for pregnant women, bills itself as “the tangible alternative to abortion.” The house, formally opened in 2015, supplies free meals and parenting courses to young women, and hopes to soon supply residential space for up to 15 women and children.
Tax filings from the group’s 2013 “start-up mode” list two “founding members”: Sister Diane Masson, and Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck. Masson is listed as functioning one hr per week, while Kaucheck worked 20.
Masson has actually known Kaucheck due to the fact that 1990, she told neighborhood newspaper, the Macomb Daily. Yet despite visiting Kaucheck through his 2009 sexual harassment allegations, she defended her decision to open a counseling focus along with him.
“He hasn’t been proven guilty,” Masson told the Macomb Daily. “Innocent until proven guilty.”
But the Gianna Residence appears to have actually taken some actions to scrub Kaucheck from their web presence. The “Board of Directors” page on the Gianna Residence website reviews “The Board has actually been chosen by Sister Mary Diane Masson to give a wide range of pointers and skills.”
Until at the very least March, the page claimed “the Board has actually been chosen by Father Ken Kaucheck and Sister Mary Diane Masson,” an archived version of the site shows. Kaucheck’s biography, which described him or her as the Gianna House’s “co-founder and Director of Development” was additionally removed from the site.
“We’d adore to make no comment,” a Gianna Residence staffer told the Everyday Beast, rapidly hanging up.
The Archdiocese of Detroit, which did not return a request for comment, has actually indicated that Kaucheck’s role could violate his public ministry ban. Kaucheck’s “placement at Gianna Residence violates the restrictions placed on his ministry in 2009,” an Archdiocese spokesperson told the Free Press. “We assert that he must not be allowed to keep on in this position.”
At least one organization says the Archdiocese’s statement is a cop-out.
“I don’t believe they’re trying. I believe they’re passing the buck to the Vatican, and pretending to be powerless,” David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests told the Everyday Beast. “We believe the quickest and ideal step the Detroit Archbishop could clearly take would certainly be to hold a news conference for tomorrow, call Father Ken today, provide him or her 24 hrs to grab in to a treatment center, or else tomorrow, I’m checking out make your personnel file public.”
