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Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
02/17/1996
3a
National
Greg Livadas, Jack Jones

Priest's arrest stuns some
Byline: Greg Livadas, Jack Jones
But others say he has a trail of strange behavior
By GREG LIVADAS and JACK JONES, STAFF WRITERS
While parishioners at Holy Trinity Church in Webster expressed shock at the Rev. Eugene Emo's arrest on
sex abuse charges, others who remember him from previous assignments said they were not surprised.
They said the charming priest had an affinity for teen-age boys that made some of his young parishioners
uncomfortable. But that discomfort rarely made its way out into the open as Emo was transferred from parish
to parish, holding more than a dozen different pastoral posts in 30-odd years.
Ronald Holdraker, who served as an altar boy at St. Cecelia Church in Irondequoit in the 1960s, recalled that
Emo befriended him and other teen-age boys.
"He'd invite them to the family cabin, but there was no family there," Holdraker said. "There were four or
five of us at a time. We thought it was something special, being the chosen ones."
He said the boys would do chores around the property during the day, then sit around a fireplace in the
evening.
"He'd start to wrestle us," Holdraker said. "He would grab me and wrestle and he wouldn't let up. It would go
on for 15 minutes or a half hour at a time. I felt uncomfortable about it."
He said the boys were always clothed and he was never sexually contacted.
"He would grab your crotch, but he would do it in a wrestling way, so you didn't think much of it," Holdraker
said. "If you complained, he would just say, `Remember, I'm a priest.' "
But Webster Mayor Wilbur "Deke" Beh, who attends Mass every morning at Holy Trinity, said he was
stunned by the news.
"It was totally out of the blue to me, and I'm an active parishioner," he said. "It just proves everybody's
human, including a priest."
Parishioners in Webster describe Emo as articulate and well-read with a great sense of humor.

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 "The first Sunday he was here, he probably gave the best homily I had ever heard," Beh said. "He has a
wealth of knowledge about a lot of things and could explain stuff to you," one parishioner said.
"I was just flabbergasted," one woman said. "I just can't fathom it."
A spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a 2,800-member support group based in
Chicago, said the shock felt by parishioners upon learning of an arrest is typical.
"They shouldn't feel alone," said David Clohessy, SPAN's national director. "We hear that all the time. To
rob a bank, you need a weapon. To molest a kid, you need charm and charisma and all the rest. They are the
same traits that enable them access to kids. The reason they get by with it so many years is because they
appear to be very charismatic and charming."
Dr. Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist at Johns Hopkins University and a former Catholic priest, said 6 percent
of Catholic priests get sexually involved with minors. Comparative studies among other denominations or the
general public have not been done, he said.
Sipe, who wrote Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis , said there have been 800 cases of Catholic
priests who have been charged with sex offenses and 1,300 priests who underwent treatment for sexual
problems in the past 10 years.
"Sexual abuse by professional people is always a violation of power," Sipe said. "It's an abuse of power, even
if the subject seems compliant."
In Naples, Ontario County, few members of the congregation at St. Januarius Church were surprised to learn
of Emo's arrest. "We've known for some time that Father Emo is a man who has a very serious problem," said
David Scheible, a member of the St. Januarius parish council.
Scheible and other members of the Naples church said yesterday that Emo left town "suddenly and
mysteriously" in the midst of allegations of financial and sexual improprieties and that diocese officials never
explained their reasons for the transfer.
"Father Robert Ring (director of Diocese personnel) came down here and he said an awful lot, but he didn't
tell us anything," Scheible said. "It was just a lot of under-the- rug sweeping."
Diocese spokeswoman Liz Brown said last night that Emo was removed from Naples in 1993 because "it was
clear there were some personal issues, some inappropriate behavior, and he needed to be evaluated and
treated."
Brown said she didn't know if Emo had been relieved of ministerial duty at other locations because of similar
problems.
"I'm not privy to personnel records," Brown said.
Scheible said the priest was removed from St. Januarius after the parish committee discovered church funds
missing and Emo "tried to cover up" for young male church members believed to have stolen the money.
A church committee confronted Emo and asked the Diocese to step in when a cleaning lady found handcuffs
and photographs of young men in the church rectory, Scheible said.

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 Scheible, who was head of the church's finance committee, said Emo "lied to me" when confronted about the
missing church funds.
"Father Emo is educated in psychology and he can snow an awful lot of people," Scheible said. "But this is a
terrible thing for the Diocese, and I'm just going to pray for the man."
Christopher Casey, also a member of the parish council, said the church was at "its all-time low- point" in the
months before Emo was removed three years ago.
Casey said it's "unfortunate" that the Diocese "just cloistered him away for awhile" without assuring that Emo
had received adequate counseling and treatment.
Scheible, Casey and other church members, including former Naples Supervisor Michael Robinson,
yesterday criticized Diocese authorities for failing to "be honest" with parishioners about Emo's suspected
problems in 1993.
"It's just too bad this thing wasn't headed off years ago," Scheible said.
"When Father Emo first came to Naples, he did a lot of great things for the parish and we thought `This guy's
all right,' " Robinson said. Robinson said the charges against Emo and recent highly publicized child abuse
scandals involving priests in other parts of the country are a powerful argument against the Catholic Church's
requirement that priests remain unmarried and celibate.
Scheible agrees.
"If a priest breaks his vows with a woman, he's out of the priesthood," Scheible said. "But if they play around
with children or with another man, they just get transferred to another parish. This is a scandal in the church
and in society today that's just beyond my comprehension. It's Satan at work."
Priest's assignments
The Rev. Eugene Emo was ordained in 1961. Map shows a list of his assignments.
June 1961: Assistant Pastor, St. Patrick' Church, Owego, Tioga County
June 1963: Assistant Pastor, St. Cecilia Church, 2732 Culver Road.
June 1968: Assistant Pastor, St. Mary's Church, Dansville.
June 1973: Assistant Pastor, St. Margaret-Mary, Apalachin, Tioga County.
June 1974: Associate Pastor, St. Michael Church, Newark, Wayne County.
June 1975: Chaplain, St. James Mercy Hospital, Hornell, Steuben County.
June 1982: Pastor, St. Mary's Church, Geneseo, Livingston County.
June 1987: Parochial Vigor, Holy Rosary, 414 Lexington Ave.
Oct. 1987: Pastor, St. Januarius, Naples, Ontario County.

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 Oct. 1993: Placed on administrative leave.
June 1994: Returns from adminstrative leave and resides at Holy Trinity, 1460 Ridge Road, Webster. Serves
as an assistant with liturgies and sacramental celebrations.
Oct. 1994: Part-time Chaplain at Mercy Health and Rehabilitation Center, Auburn, Cayuga County.
Oct. 1994: Placed on limited assignment.
Dec. 1994: Resigns as part-time chaplain of Mercy Health.
Jan. 1995: Part-time chaplain at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Canandaigua, Ontario County.
June 1995: Full-time chaplain at the Veteran's Administration Hospital.
Jan. 31, 1996: Implicated in alleged sexual abuse and placed on administrative leave from Holy Trinity. Also
resigns as chaplain of the Veteran's Administration Hospital.
Feb. 16, 1996: Arrested at Holy Trinity and charged with second-degree sexual abuse for an incident in
Steuben County.
Map not available.
BRYAN WITTMAN, staff artist
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Eugene Emo
Courts, Criminal Procedure, Arrest