Pennsylvania Superior Court on March 25 upheld the convictions of a former Northeast-based priest and former Catholic school lay teacher for sexually abusing a boy at St. Jerome’s Parish more than a decade ago.
The Rev. Charles Englehardt died last November of natural causes while still maintaining his innocence in the case and serving a six- to 12-year sentence at a state prison in Coal Township, Northumberland County. He was 67. The former lay teacher, Bernard Shero, 52, is serving an eight- to 16-year sentence at a state prison near Houtzdale, Clearfield County.
Englehardt, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, was living at the St. Jerome’s rectory in the late 1990s when he abused a 10-year-old altar boy, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said. He gave the youth communion wine, forced him to disrobe and sexually assaulted him in the church sacristy. He was arrested in 2011 and convicted by a jury two years later of endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and indecent assault.
Although he had died, the latest appeal moved forward in accordance with case law precedent.
Shero abused the same boy in 2000 when he offered the pupil a ride home from school, but instead took him to a secluded parking lot and raped him, the DA’s Office said. He was convicted alongside Englehardt of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and related offenses.
A second priest, Edward Avery, was charged with abusing the same boy and pleaded guilty to IDSI and conspiracy. He is serving a sentence of 2–1/2 to five years at a state prison in Somerset County. ••
