WORCESTER - A Catholic priest named in one of the Worcester Diocese's largest sex-abuse settlements has been laicized, or defrocked, the diocese announced Thursday.
Peter J. Inzerillo, at his own request, was "dispensed from the clerical state" by Pope Francis, the diocese said. As a result, Mr. Inzerillo "may not function in any capacity as a priest or be referred to as a priest or as 'Father.' "
The former Rev. Inzerillo was headmaster at St. Peter-Marian High School in Worcester from 1979 to 1985 and coached hockey there and at St. Bernard's in Fitchburg.
He was vocations director for the Worcester Diocese in 1985 when he allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old from Spencer who was considering entering the seminary.
The younger man, Edward Gagne, said he disclosed during counseling sessions with the vocations director that he had been abused before, as a 13-year-old altar boy, by another priest - and he alleged that Rev. Inzerillo then abused him in turn.
Mr. Gagne filed a civil suit against the diocese in 1999 and was awarded a settlement of $300,000. The diocese then reassigned Rev. Inzerillo to St. Leo's Church in Leominster.
It was not until three years later, in 2002, that then-Bishop Daniel P. Reilly removed Rev. Inzerillo from ministry "for the good of the parish," according to the T&G. "Mr. Inzerillo has not had faculties for priestly ministry since that time," the diocese said.
Mr. Inzerillo, now 74, a graduate of the former Barre High School, was ordained a priest in 1970 and served as associate pastor at St. Anna's in Leominster and as pastor at St. Anthony of Padua in Fitchburg, as well as assistant pastor at St. Leo's in Leominster.
In Thursday's announcement, Bishop Robert J. McManus said: "It is my fervent prayer that Christ may bring healing and hope to anyone who has been abused by a priest or by anyone in the Catholic Church." He encouraged anyone who has suffered clerical abuse to contact the diocese's victims assistance coordinator in the Office of Healing and Prevention.