US: Pope defrocks former Illinois priest accused of sexually molesting boys decades ago

BELLEVILLE, Ill. -

Pope Benedict XVI defrocked a priest accused of sexually molesting teenage boys decades ago while directing a Catholic youth camp, church officials said Monday. Robert Vonnahmen, 76, was removed from the priesthood "for the good of the Church," Bishop Edward Braxton of the Diocese of Belleville said in a statement. Vonnahmen was removed from priestly duties in 1993 by one of Braxton's predecessors after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused minors. But Vonnahmen, who has denied the allegations, remained a priest because only the pope can defrock clergy. In 1993, a man sued the diocese in southern Illinois for negligence, saying Vonnahmen sodomized him in 1981, when he was 13, at the diocese-owned Camp Ondessonk. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in 1995, ruling the statute of limitations had expired.