Moving priest didn't solve problem, his attorney says

ST. LOUIS -- As the Rev. Victor Frobas lay dying, he complained the Roman Catholic Church had moved him around from state to state without making much effort to cure him of his sexual disorder, an attorney representing the priest said.

"He was very angry at the church and believed it just shuffled him around to cover up his problem all those years," said William J. Shaw, who was then St. Louis County's public defender.

"It was clear to me he was a pedophile," Shaw told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a story in Monday's editions. "But the church transferring him around, pretending all is well, made for a very sad situation. Maybe we're seeing the end of this."

Frobas was convicted in August 1988 of molesting two boys, ages 13 and 15, at Holy Infant parish in suburban St. Louis.

At the court hearing, Frobas said, "I guess I'm glad all this is happening, because it's been a nightmare state for me, having done what I've done. ... I am guilty."

He served 25 months in prison and died of cancer and diabetes in July 1993 at a Catholic nursing home, still pursued by lawsuits and criminal charges from two other states.

His story includes a trail of allegations that he sexually abused boys during the 1970s and 1980s, ending in Missouri with his guilty plea. It's a story that is becoming more familiar as the Catholic Church comes to grips with new disclosures of past sexual abuse.

Early accusations

Frobas was ordained in 1966 in Wheeling, W.Va., for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. He came to St. Louis in 1983 for "treatment" -- a term his home diocese declined to elaborate upon.

In the months before and after his death, criminal charges in Worcester, Mass., and lawsuits filed in Wheeling accused him of molesting boys during the 1970s -- well before he came to St. Louis. It also turned out that Frobas had been in Massachusetts back then for his first round of treatment. It remains unclear who knew about his problems, and when.

Terry Edelmann, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, told the Post-Dispatch that officials did not have time to review Frobas' case because of the disclosures last week of allegations about other priests.

After Frobas was indicted, a January 1988 article in the archdiocese newspaper quoted then-auxiliary Bishop Edward J. O'Donnell as saying the archdiocese never was told of anything about Frobas "that would have prevented him from effective parish service." O'Donnell is now bishop of the Lafayette, La.

David Clohessy, national director of the 3,500-member Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said Frobas' trail through three states amounted to a standard practice back then and still occurs today. Clohessy said he was sexually abused by a priest in his native Moberly, Mo., starting when he was 11 until he was 15.

"This was painfully common," said Clohessy, 45. "In recent years, bishops have tried to define it as ancient history. It's more common that priests simply are shifted within their diocese."