The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, an Oblate of St. Francis DeSales who was in the process of appealing his 2013 child molestation conviction, died Sunday.
“Father Charles Engelhardt was a good, holy and, yes, a saintly man who left this world too soon,” his attorney, Michael McGovern, told the Northeast Times on Tuesday. “He was innocent in spite of the outcome of his trial. I know this to be true. Soon, I expect the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, who heard his appeal argument on Oct. 28, will confirm this by reversing that verdict brought after an unfair prosecution and a trial filled with error.”
Engelhardt, 67, who had taught at North Catholic and Father Judge, and had served as pastor of Mater Dolorosa Church in Frankford, was convicted of several molestation counts in early 2013, almost two years after his 2011 arrest. He was serving his sentence in Coal Township Prison in Northumberland County and been suffering with heart problems, philly.com reported Tuesday.
Prosecutors had charged that the priest was the first person to molest a 10-year-old St. Jerome parish school pupil in the 1990s. They said the boy subsequently was victimized by another priest, Edward Avery, and by a St. Jerome teacher, Bernard Shero.
Assistant district attorneys alleged Engelhardt had told Avery about his “sessions” with the boy and that’s how Avery’s sexual contact with the child began. They never established a link between the priests and Shero. Avery pleaded guilty before he went on trial in 2012, but he testified in prison clothes at Engelhardt and Shero’s 2013 trial, and insisted that he had never met the boy.
Engelhardt and Shero were both found guilty and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Both men appealed their convictions, and those appeals now are being considered by Pennsylvania Superior Court. During the trial, McGovern had attacked the believability of the victim’s testimony, and, on appeal, said prosecutors were guilty of misconduct.
“Father was always my quiet source of peace and strength. He never had an unkind word for his accusers or their false allegations but, truly, prayed for them instead. Father Engelhardt always told me, ‘There is only one judgment that matters and we all get that on our last day,’” McGovern told the newspaper. “Father now has his, relieved from the torments and injustice of this place.”
Father Engelhardt’s viewing will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Ninth and DuPont streets, Wilmington, Del. Mass will follow at 11 a.m. Burial will be at Oblate Cemetery, Childs, Md. ••
