PA--Ex Pittsburgh Catholic cleric sentenced for sex crimes

Statement by Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA 636-433-2511. [email protected]

A Catholic cleric, who worked in Pittsburgh, has been convicted in Australia of a string of sex offenses.

He is Marianist Brother Bernard Joseph Hartman who taught for more than a decade (1986-97) at former North Catholic High School in Pittsburgh. His church supervisors learned of Australian allegations in 1997 and sent him for treatment and reassigned to ministry.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/18/catholic-brother-australia-abuse/27518789/   

As recently as 2008, Hartman was in active ministry in Ohio despite having apologized in writing almost a decade earlier to a girl he molested. Dayton church-goers told a journalist that Hartman had been sent to live at a church property in St. Louis Missouri where the Marianists are based.

His photo is available at BishopAccountability.org

We hope that Pittsburgh Catholic officials - with the diocese and with the Marianists - will do more to reach out to others who saw, suspected or suffered crimes by Hartman or cover ups by his colleagues.

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