Catholic Official Resigns Over Hiring of Priest Accused of Abuse

A high-ranking Catholic monsignor from Monterey has resigned amid controversy after he hired a suspended Arizona priest accused of child sexual abuse and later offered him housing.

Msgr. Charles G. Fatooh said last week he was resigning from his post as vicar general “with a heavy heart ... out of dignity and respect for the bishop and the members of the Diocese of Monterey.”

In 1995, Fatooh had arranged to hire Msgr. Robert Trupia as a consultant for the Monterey Diocese, though Trupia had been suspended from the priesthood and was a defendant in several molestation-related lawsuits in Arizona.

Trupia worked periodically in Monterey for several years, according to diocese spokesman Kevin Drabinski, dealing with property law, employment issues and marital doctrine. He did not serve as a priest.

The consulting relationship ended in October 2001, but Trupia soon moved into a condominium Fatooh had bought in Maryland, a Tucson newspaper reported. The two men had met in Tucson more than 10 years earlier.

Trupia has been accused in civil court of molesting as many as 30 boys while he was a priest and marriage counselor for the Tucson Diocese. He has spent more than a decade fighting efforts to defrock him, all the while receiving $1,475 in monthly pension payments from the diocese.

The Arizona diocese suspended him after a woman complained that he abused her son, an altar boy. The diocese ordered Trupia to get treatment, but he refused.

Until he was tracked down by a reporter for the Tucson newspaper, Trupia had been living in Fatooh’s condominium, avoiding process servers and church and police officials, according to Lynne Cadigan, a Tucson lawyer representing several men suing Trupia.

Fatooh spokesman Sean Walsh said the monsignor never intended to help Trupia hide from anyone and wasn’t helping to support him. He said Trupia has been paying fair-market rent for the Maryland condo.

Nevertheless, Drabinski said the diocese was reviewing the condo arrangement out of concern over “the appearance of impropriety.”