Priest

A Roman Catholic priest reinstated as pastor of a West Baltimore church where he had been accused of sexual abuse of a minor "should not have been reassigned to parish ministry," a blue-ribbon review board has advised Archbishop William H. Keeler.But Archbishop Keeler defended his decision to return the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell in December to his pastorate at St. Edward Church at Poplar Grove Street and Lafayette Avenue. The priest had been removed from the post for nearly three months while he underwent counseling at an evaluation and treatment center in Hartford, Conn.

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida man accused a priest yesterday of molesting him almost 30 years ago -- the same priest former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley alleges sexually abused him. In a suit filed against the Archdiocese of Miami in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the unidentified man said that the Rev. Anthony Mercieca fondled and performed oral sex on him when he was 12 or 13 years old. At the time, the alleged victim was an altar boy at St. James Church in...

The Rev. John Joseph Canfield, S.S., a retired priest whose work served the Roman Catholic priesthood in Baltimore for about three decades, died Tuesday of heart failure at St. Martin's Home for the Aged in Catonsville. He was 77.Father Canfield served and taught his fellow priests for 28 years at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore before retiring as its vice president in 1986. During those years, his work included teaching dogmatic theology, editing the seminary's alumni magazine, and serving as vice rector.

Although he is soon to leave the Westminster parish he has called home for five years, the Rev. David Pietropaoli is still working for the children he calls its future.Two weeks ago, the man whose many duties included the youth ministry at St. John Catholic Church led one last retreat for 32 teen-agers. During the three days of prayer, mixed with sports, at a camp in Pennsylvania, the children "really inspired me," he said."By the second day, they had decided it was OK to be Catholic," he said.

The Episcopal bishop of Easton has told an elderly Maryland priest he may no longer preach or perform the sacraments because he blessed the union of two homosexual men in an Eastern Shore ceremony that had all the trappings of a wedding.The deposed priest, the Rev. John K. Mount, said yesterday that he took part in the May 28 ceremony -- specifically praying for God's strength and comfort for the two gay men -- largely out of compassion because both are dying of AIDS.He did not perform a "marriage" as such, the priest said, although the two men considered their vows of faithfulness to each other to be the equivalent of a marriage.

IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS: The Death and Life of a Parish Priest. By Paul Wilkes. Random House. 256 pages. $19.95.WHEN WAS the last time anyone thought of the parish priest as a hero? With all of the negative news about priests surfacing in recent months, this book by Paul Wilkes stands as a "point of light" in what seems a gloomy night for the priesthood."In Mysterious Ways" is the story of a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, the Rev. Joe Greer. Inspired by the French classic, "Diary of a Country Priest," the author wanted to write about a modern priest, a sort of "diary of a city priest."

A lawyer for the man accused of shooting a Baltimore priest launched a shouting tirade yesterday outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, saying the city state's attorney is not investigating allegations that his client was molested by the priest. Hollering insults about prosecutors through a bullhorn, attorney Warren A. Brown stood alongside the family of the accused man, Dontee Stokes, 27. "The state's attorney's office is trying to whitewash this investigation," said Brown, who claims he came up with the bullhorn approach because his letters requesting a meeting with State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy have gone unanswered.

In yesterday's editions, a priest who resigned his pastorate near Annapolis after admitting adultery with a parishioner was incorrectly identified. He is the Rev. James R. Schaefer.The Sun regrets the error.A senior Roman Catholic priest has resigned as pastor of a large congregation near Annapolis after disclosing an adulterous relationship with a recently divorced woman who was a Eucharistic minister.The Rev. John R. Schaefer, 63, made the stunning announcement at all five Masses June 11 and 12 at St. Andrew by the Bay Church in Cape St. Claire.

The Rev. Paul Francis Dolan, a retired priest who bought and drove a school bus so children at his Taneytown parish could get a Roman Catholic education, died of pneumonia Friday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 85. Born in Johnstown, Pa., he was the son of a Bethlehem Steel Corp. manager who moved the family to Sparrows Point in the early 1930s. Father Dolan attended St. Rita parochial school and was a 1937 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School, where he was captain of the track team.

The Rev. Francis Charles Bourbon, a Jesuit priest, former Loyola College faculty member and Baltimore City Fire Department chaplain, died Tuesday of pneumonia at Lankenau Hospital in suburban Philadelphia. He was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised on Belvieu Avenue, he was a 1944 Loyola High School graduate. He entered the Jesuit order that year and was ordained a priest June 23, 1957, by Archbishop Francis P. Keough. He joined the Loyola College faculty in 1959 and became dean of men and a theology teacher.