New York Priest Who Secretly Fathered A Child Removed From Parish

New York Priest Who Secretly Fathered A Child Removed From Parish

A newly selected Roman Catholic priest has been removed from his suburban New York parish after church officials on Thursday said he secretly fathered a child while attending the seminary.

The removal of Reverend Casmir Mung'aho, 34, from his post at St. Stephen the First Martyr Church in the Orange County town of Warwick, New York, just two weeks after the resignation of a Los Angeles assistant bishop who admitted he had two children.

Mung'aho was asked to step down after officials learned he fathered a child in a consensual relationship with an adult woman during his first year of seminary school, Bishop Dominick Lagonegro said in a statement.

While Mung'aho was removed from the congregation in Warwick, it was not yet clear whether he will remain a priest or be defrocked by the New York Archdiocese, said archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling. He said officials had yet to discuss with Mung'aho what action will be taken.

The Catholic Church requires celibacy from its priests.

When asked how the church found out about the young child, the Rev. Michael McLoughlin, St. Stephen's pastor, declined to elaborate to Reuters.

"The support and respect for the church in general is very high," he said in his biography. "I see myself here being a model. It's being an example every day."

Earlier this month, Gabino Zavala, an assistant bishop of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles, resigned after admitting he had a secret family and the two teenage children he fathered were living with their mother in another state.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday January 21 2012, 2:21 AM EDT. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Nation. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0