MI--Kalamazoo predator priest passes; Victims respond

For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016

Statement by Judy Jones, Midwest Associate Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest 636-433-2511, [email protected]

Kalamazoo Catholic officials kept silent for weeks about the passing of an accused predator priest and made no mention of his alleged crimes in the very short obituary published in the diocesan newspaper.

In 1985, Fr. Carl Anthony Peltz was accused of forcing a 12 year old to drink whiskey and raping him.

In 1991, Fr. Peltz was sent to a treatment center for predator priests in Missouri.

In 1993, diocesan officials reached a $25,000 settlement with the alleged victim.

In 1997, Fr. Peltz was transferred to the Kalamazoo Diocese where he worked as recently as 2009 in at least eight towns (Parchment, Delton, Lacey, Berrien Springs, Decatur, Buchanan, Portage and Niles).
www.BishopAccountability.org 

According to Fr. Peltz's obituary, he died on Dec. 26 last year and was buried at St. Augustine Cathedral in Kalamazoo. But as best we can tell, Kalamazoo Bishop Paul J. Bradley told no one (except for a tiny, 21 word funeral mass notice on the diocesan website). Even if he had put notices in church publications, in the interest of transparency and healing, he should have notified the mainstream media of Fr. Peltz’ passing.

Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Montforton waited to make Fr. Peltz’ death public until Feb 11 (at the bottom of page 11 in a 12 page publication). http://www.lifestorynet.com/obituaries/fr-carl-f-peltz.110175

(Fr. Peltz had originally been ordained in Steubenville.)

We hope anyone who has seen, suspected or suffered, Fr. Peltz’ crimes, or cover ups by his church colleagues or supervisors, will call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing. 

And we hope that, in the future, church officials in Kalamazoo will be more honest with police, prosecutors, parents, parishioners and the public about accused child molesting clerics. 

According to the Official Catholic Directory, Fr. Peltz was also assigned to work in Virginia (Norfolk in the Richmond diocese), Montana (Ft. Shaw and Cascade in the Great Falls-Billings diocese), Missouri (Manchester and Glencoe in the St. Louis archdiocese) and as a Navy chaplain in Iceland).

In Ohio, he worked in Lore City, Seneca Lake, Steubenville, Amsterdam and Marietta (all in the Steubenville diocese).

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/2011_08_14_Steubenvilletruthorg_CarlAnthony_Carl_Peltz_4.htm 

A photo of Fr. Peltz is available at BishopAccountability.org

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747,[email protected])