Another day, another underage gay sex scandal in the Catholic Church. This one involves a priest from Allentown, Pennsylvania and a teen boy he met on social media back in 2011.
Reverend Monsignor Francis Nave is accused of initially contacting the 16-year-old boy through a gay social media website. The teen had joined the site looking for support and friendship while he came to terms with his sexuality.
According to the lawsuit, Nave, who was the pastor of the Sacred Heart parish in Bath, Pennsylvania at the time, told the teen that he was a “skilled counselor” and offered to help him with his issues.
The Morning Call reports:
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Through intimate and personal conversations in which the priest told the boy he wanted to be his friend, Nave groomed the boy sexually, the suit alleges. He asked sexually explicit questions, according to the lawsuit, and told the boy that he was masturbating during their conversations.
After proposing that he and the boy communicate through video conferencing apps such as Skype or Facetime, the suit says, Nave conducted the video sessions from his room in the rectory while the boy was in his Virginia home.
According to the lawsuit, during their first video session Nave instructed the teen to get naked and masturbate on camera. When the teen expressed his discomfort with the idea, Nave assured him it was all a part of the counseling and that it would help him “cope with his issues.”
As the video counseling sessions continued, Nave was eventually able to persuade the teen to engage in other sexual behavior. Images from the sessions were captured by the youth in screenshots, which his lawyer, Jeff Herman, shared with media this week.
Herman says the sessions continued for about a year before the teen, who is now 23, broke off communication with Nave.
“He was contacted again over the years but he has not wanted to have conversation with [Nave],” Herman says. “He felt completely used and hurt. He has been struggling with this.”
Now, he adds, “This brave young man is coming forward to expose a sexual predator in a position of power at the Diocese of Allentown. He hopes to prevent future victims. It is appalling that in 2018 there are still sexual predators in the Catholic Church disguising themselves as men of God.”
No charges have been filed against Nave, but police continue to investigate. A spokesperson for the Allentown Diocese says he has been removed from ministry pending the outcome of the investigation.
Related: Two trainee priests sent back to Ireland after being caught in bed together
Tête Carrée
Disgusting. When these religious freaks aren’t condemning us and encouraging hate, they’re harming our youth through their perversion. Stalking a young man (or boy) trying to get support on a gay website. You don’t hear the bigots mentioning this while they’re writing their hate comments on blogs/news sites.
Time to make religion illegal. As they would say, it’s for their own good.
Chrisk
Religion is like the bat signal to the batshit crazies. I’ve been around enough of them to know to stay clear of them.
fur_hunter
Just more proof that HYPOCRISY is alive and well. Just remember one thing……….Religion = Control of People and their MONEY!
Me2
There does seem to be a bit of malicious intent on the part of the young man. But that does not change the fact that the Priest was wrong and is a predator.
Billy Budd
Religion is poison. It is the root of all evil. Paraphrasing John Lennon: “…..Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too. Imagine all the people, living life in peace………”
Ryan Field
What always amazes me is that some people will defend the adult and slam the kid. Whenever there’s a situation like this with an adult and a kid it’s the adult’s responsibility to make the right choices. I don’t care if it’s a priest or a baker. The adult should be the one to walk away and not promote sex with a kid. But there will still be people who defend it. Maybe they’ll even make a sequel now…”Call Me By Your Name, Father”
Jaroslaw
Ryan – saying the “kid” isn’t pure as driven snow is not defending the priest. Kids much younger than 16 can be vicious and manipulative (and knowingly lie) or did you forget grade school and Jr Hi/middle school? Yes adults should do the right thing but many don’t – so if you want to think in such simplistic b/w terms then children should be monitored 24 hours a day. What I mean here is 16 year olds have jobs and drive cars by themselves – why are boys especially helpless when it comes to sex? And what of the 10s of thousands of teens who produce children *(whom they can’t take care of and often abuse and neglect)??
HMFan
This guy needs to be defrocked. He is the ANTITHESIS of a responsible adult helping a young person through a crisis. Now because of Father Fapfap, this poor kid is a mental mess. Way to go, Catholic Church, put another notch on your bedpost of souls you’ve ruined in the name of God.
OzJosh
I have zero sympathy for the priest. He deserves everything that’s coming on the grounds of hypocrisy alone. But a kid who is savvy enough to get screen captures of his “abuse” is not quite the innocent depicted here.
JAW
Not defending the priest, but it seems that the kid lied to get on the gay web site. It also seems the the kid may have implied that he was 18.
The kid went on a gay website so he knew what he was looking for.
RobtheElder
When Starbucks discovers inappropriate behavior on the part of their employees they close to embark on a retraining spree. When will we see the Church develop an ongoing series of sensitivity training seminars to update their religious on properly religious ways to handle lay questions on personal sexuality that don’t involve naked acting out on media that can be recorded by the laity to use as proof of inappropriate clergy later. Are the law and the Church only interested in dealing with the issue after the fact, or is it possible to get ahead of the crisis? Certainly there must be clergy that recognized the proclivities of this video priest before he was turned loose on 16 year old boys. For the boy, it must have been better than a porn site… A naked adult that happened to also be clergy… How droll, how erogenous, how completely inappropriate. What is the Church teaching the teachers? … RobtheElder
Doug
Can anybody clue me in on what we’re looking at in the second photo? All I see is a blob. What was the point of even posting it?