A retired Catholic priest was arrested Wednesday on a Stoddard County warrant for alleged sex crimes perpetrated while serving as the priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Advance, Missouri, according to information released by Stoddard County prosecutors.

Frederick Joseph Lutz, 76, of Springfield, Missouri, was charged with the unclassified felony of forcible sodomy, two class C felony counts of second-degree statutory sodomy and one class C felony count of sexual abuse, according to an arrest warrant signed Tuesday by Stoddard County Circuit Judge Joe Satterfield. His bond was set at $125,000.

According to a probable-cause affidavit written by Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office investigator Tim McCoy, Lutz allegedly forced a 17-year-old boy to perform oral sex inside the rectory at St. Joseph in 2000.

Upon returning home, the alleged victim informed his father of the incident and the father spoke to a teacher who in turn told Lutz about the conversation, McCoy wrote.

The priest called the boy’s father to his office a few weeks later and apologized for the incident, blaming his actions on the consumption of alcohol, McCoy stated. According to the probable-cause affidavit, Lutz was “very nervous” and “sweating” as he attempted to explain the sexual assault to the boy’s father and also admitted to have recently broken up with a boyfriend.

The release stated the allegations against Lutz were discovered in church documents by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office during its investigation into Catholic priest abuse.

The allegations were referred to the Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Jan. 2, according to the release, and the charges filed in Stoddard County against Lutz are dated Feb. 18.

McCoy also stated that while investigating the alleged sex crimes committed by the priest in 2000, he learned of an additional allegation against Lutz regarding alleged sex crimes committed in Cape Girardeau in the summer of 1972.

The investigator’s probable-cause affidavit stated the allegations from 1972 involved another 17-year-old boy who passed out after consuming alcohol with Lutz at another man’s apartment in Cape Girardeau, then later woke up as he was being sexually assaulted in a bed at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

According to the affidavit, Lutz gave the victim a Bible on Sunday morning and told him “what happened never should have happened” and the priest wished the victim “good luck in college”.

The victim of the 1972 sexual assault made a formal complaint with the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 2006, but the complaint was not disclosed publicly until a diocese letter was delivered in October 2018 to all churches in which Lutz served.

The information released Wednesday by Stoddard County prosecutors included a list of more than a dozen parishes where Lutz served during his pastoral career of nearly 40 years.

The list of Lutz’s appointments began in 1972 when he served as a transitional deacon at St. Mary’s. He was ordained as a priest a year later and pastored several Missouri churches.

In 1987, Lutz was appointed as a pastor at Immaculate Conception in Jackson. In 1994, he was appointed as a pastor at Guardian Angel in Oran, Missouri, and in 1996, he was appointed as a pastor at St. Joseph.

Due to Lutz being involved in “at least two cases” of a sexual nature, McCoy concluded his probable-cause affidavit by classifying the priest as “a danger to the community.”

Prosecutors are asking anyone with information regarding additional victims to contact McCoy by calling (573) 568-4640, ext. 4.

“Should any additional victims of the Defendant exist, we want those victims to know that although decades may have passed, we will pursue justice for all victims,” Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russell Oliver stated in the release.