Michigan authorities who brought criminal charges against a Catholic priest in Hawaii said the alleged sexual abuse of a minor boy occurred in the islands. Isles site of
priest’s alleged abuseThe retired cleric now living
in Waianae denies involvement
in the Michigan caseStaff and wire reports
The Rev. Robert Burkholder, who retired to Hawaii more than 20 years ago, is one of four priests formerly employed by the Archdiocese of Detroit who were charged yesterday with sexual abuse that allegedly took place in the 1960s to 1980s.
A Waianae resident, Burkholder, 83, yesterday denied the accusations, which produced two second-degree sexual abuse charges. He was accused by a man who said he was molested in 1986 while on a trip to Hawaii. The accuser, who was not named, said he was 13 at the time and had been taken on the Hawaii trip as an eighth-grade graduation present.
"I don't know anything about it," Burkholder told the Associated Press. "It wasn't me. I never took anyone to Honolulu or anywhere."
Burkholder has admitted to sexual misconduct with minors in the 1940s and 1950s, events that led to a 1993 edict from the Detroit diocese that prohibited him from saying Mass and otherwise functioning as a priest.
Burkholder said he underwent six months of counseling in New York for his offenses and that whatever happened is "long gone."
"I haven't done anything wrong since I graduated from the program in New York," he said. "They were satisfied I had been corrected and given strength.
"People are always looking for an angle they can profit from, and that's what this is, I'm afraid," he told the Star-Bulletin. "I'm living out here in retirement in a studio apartment. I don't have any money or anything, but somebody found out there's a possibility of suing people."
Burkholder said he is still a devout Catholic, but not a priest. He helped out in Oahu churches after he came here in the early 1980s, according to Honolulu diocesan spokesman Patrick Downes. Local records show he retired here in October 1981 and was permitted to perform in public ministry here until Detroit prohibited it in 1993.
Downes said Burkholder helped out by saying Mass at St. Elizabeth Church in Aiea and was under contract for a time with the Army to work at Schofield Barracks. At no time was he assigned to the Honolulu diocese, Downes said.
Wayne County, Mich., Prosecutor Michael Duggan said Burkholder admitted in a 1993 letter to the archdiocese he had molested 23 boys, going as far back as 1949.
He engaged in sexual acts with the boys and at times encouraged them to engage in group sex, said Duggan, who described Burkholder as "without a doubt one of the worst pedophiles we have in this state."
"Father Burkholder's means of seduction was to tell these young boys, many of whom were altar boys, that their bodies were gifts from God and therefore were to be shared" with the priest, Duggan said.
Only the 1986 allegations fall within the statute of limitations, Duggan said. Michigan authorities were able to charge him because Burkholder had authority over the boy that he obtained in Wayne County when the boy's parents gave him permission to take their son to Hawaii.
Monsignor Walter Hurley, the Detroit archdiocese's liaison with civil authorities investigating abuse claims, said the archdiocese first became aware of the allegations against Burkholder in the 1960s.
Two lawsuits were brought against Burkholder in the early- to mid-1990s. Both were settled and at least one settlement was paid, according to the archdiocese.
Prosecutors said efforts to extradite the priests would begin after warrants were signed yesterday. The others accused were Harry Benjamin, 60, of Vienna, Va., charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct; Edward Olszewski, 67, of Key Largo, Fla., charged with eight counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct; and Jason E. Sigler, 64, of New Mexico, charged with four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Star-Bulletin reporters Mary Adamski and Genevieve Suzuki and the Associated Press contributed to this report.