Ex-priest gets prison for sex assaults

A former Catholic priest who served in Delaware County parishes was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in a state prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault of a person under 13.

Francis Trauger, 74, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged last year in Bucks County, though he had been named years earlier in grand jury reports and civil lawsuits filed by victims. The charges on which Trauger was ultimately convicted involved two altar boys he had molested in the mid-1990s and early 2000s at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Tullytown.

The victims, now both in their 30s, were each 12 years old when they said Trauger assaulted them as they changed into their

vestments before mass.

Trauger, who was defrocked in 2005, had also served as the assistant pastor at Holy Cross Church in Springfield from November 1976 to June 1980 and as parochial vicar of St. Joseph Church in Aston from June 1989 to June 1993.

He was among five priests with Delaware County ties named in a series of civil suits brought by alleged victims of abuse in 2012, who claimed the church covered up and ignored claims of abuse. Trauger was accused in one of those cases of sexually abusing an altar boy who worked at the rectory at St. Titus Church in Norristown.

Trauger’s attorney, Brian McVann, said at Wednesday’s hearing that his client’s conduct “cannot be defended,” and that he felt compelled to plead guilty and take responsibility for his actions, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report on the hearing.

“He has done great good in his life,” McVann was quoted saying. “Unfortunately, it has been lost in this case.”

Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Finley told Trauger that any good he had done had been “torn down” by his criminal actions, the Inquirer reported.

In addition to prison, Trauger was ordered to serve two years of consecutive probation, according to court records. He is not to have contact with the victim or people under the age of 18 years old and must register for 10 years as a sexual offender under Megan’s Law. He will also be evaluated by the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board and undergo sexual offender treatment programs while in prison.