Retired Catholic priest who pastored several Southeast Missouri churches accused of abusing child

A retired Catholic priest is accused of sexually abusing a child while he was a �transitional deacon� at St. Mary�s Cathedral in Cape Girardeau in the early 1970s, a church official said Monday.

The allegation against the Rev. Fred Lutz was reported to the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 2006 but not disclosed publicly until this week, said Leslie Anne Eidson, communications director for the diocese.

The allegation was reported Sunday in a diocese letter sent to all the churches in which he served, including St. Mary�s and Immaculate Conception in Jackson. The letter was included in church bulletins.

Born in 1943, Lutz served in St. Mary�s Cathedral as a transitional deacon from 1972 to 1973. He was ordained in 1973.

He later served as a pastor for several Southeast Missouri parishes.

He pastored Immaculate Conception Parish in Jackson in 1987, Guardian Angel Parish in Oran in 1994 and St. Joseph Parish in Advance and St. Anthony Parish in Glennon in 1996, according to the diocese.

In 2003, he pastored St. Benedict Parish in Doniphan, Missouri.

On Monday, the diocese issued a news release.

Under church policy, the diocese should have publicly disclosed the allegation in 2006 when it surfaced, Eidson told the Southeast Missourian.

Diocese officials learned of the lack of public notification as part of a church-launched inquiry into the personnel records of all its clerical and lay staff dating back more than five decades, Eidson said.

Pastoral support was provided to the victim, she said.

In addition to Lutz, the diocese reported sexual-abuse allegations Monday against the Rev. John Brath and Monsignor John Rynish, both of whom are deceased.

Brath died in 2014; Rynish died in 2001, according to the diocese news release. Neither served churches in Cape Girardeau County or the immediately surrounding counties, according to diocese records.

Eidson said diocese officials found the allegation against Lutz to be �credible� and reported the allegation to the Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney�s Office and the state�s child abuse and neglect hotline in 2006, she said.

Morley Swingle, who was prosecutor at the time, said Monday he doesn�t recall the allegation but is certain his office would have looked at the matter.

�I know we would have reviewed it,� he said.

But Swingle said even if the allegation were credible, Missouri�s statute of limitation would have prevented prosecution.

Swingle said there was a three-year statute of limitations on such crimes until 1987. Since then, lawmakers have periodically expanded the number of years. Today, there is no statue of limitations for rape and serious sexual offenses involving a minor.

But a Missouri appeals court in 2013 ruled in a sexual-offense case that an alleged offender cannot be prosecuted if the statute of limitations at the time of the crime has since expired, Swingle said.

In 2006, when the allegation against Lutz surfaced, the statute of limitations extended up to 20 years from a victim�s 18th birthday, according to Swingle.

But by then, the case would have more than 30 years old.

The diocese in August announced it had begun an inquiry into its personnel records in the wake of reported sexual abuse since the 1940s by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania.

Bishop Edward Rice called for the review.

�I am committed to breaking the dark cloak of mishandling and silence and will take measurable steps toward healing,� he wrote in a letter read in Catholic churches when the inquiry was announced.

Eidson said in August the review would look at not only �criminal type� allegations but also ministerial misconduct including any incidents of harassment and inappropriate use of social media.

All personnel records will be reviewed dating back to the founding of the diocese in 1956, according to Eidson.

The diocese, she said, also is cooperating with Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley�s statewide investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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