Visiting Priest Is Held on Sex Charges

A Roman Catholic priest visiting from Poland was arraigned Thursday on charges he sexually assaulted a teenage girl while counseling her about a previous sexual assault.

Father Roman Kramek, 40, who had been serving at Sacred Heart Church, is accused of having sex with the 17-year-old on Dec. 18, prosecutors said. Kramek confessed to the crime in a sworn statement to authorities, they said.

Kramek was arrested Tuesday and arraigned Thursday on a second-degree sexual assault charge. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail until his next court appearance Jan. 30.

Under state law, it is illegal for psychotherapists or clergy members to have sex with anyone they are counseling.

Kramek told police the girl never refused his advances but never gave him permission to touch her or have sex with her, according to court documents.

The Hartford Archdiocese and Sacred Heart parish said they were unaware of the charges until they were contacted Thursday by reporters.

“How could he do this?” said Father Paul Wysocki, the parish’s only priest. “I feel so sad.”

About 3,000 families attend Sacred Heart, more than half of them Polish, Wysocki said. He said he has an agreement with a Polish bishop who sends priests during the Christmas and Easter holidays when he needs help hearing confessions.

Father John Gatzak, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese had received a letter from a Polish bishop stating that Kramek was a priest in good standing.

According to court papers, a counselor who was helping the victim recover from a previous sexual assault asked Kramek in early December whether he could offer the girl counseling.

The priest said that he touched the girl to ascertain where she had been touched when she was sexually assaulted previously, and to show her that sexual relations between a man and a woman are not always bad.

“Father Roman stated he did this to the victim to help her,” the affidavit read.