Monk laicized after “inappropriate sexual relationship”.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal announced Friday that one of its members, Louis Leonelli, was laicized after admitting to “an inappropriate sexual relationship with an adult woman.”

Leonelli was facing a lawsuit accusing him of serially assaulting a woman a decade ago.

“Louis Leonelli, as a priest and member of the community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, admitted to having an inappropriate sexual relationship with an adult woman,” the CFRs said in a statement on Friday.

“The civil litigation regarding this issue has been resolved,” the statement said.

The statement said the community had conducted a thorough canonical process at the Vatican’s direction and “decided that Leonelli should be laicized, which took effect immediately.”

Leave a comment

While the statement did not specify which canonical crime Leonelli was alleged to have committed, a 2022 lawsuit accused him of initiating sexual contact with a woman as part of the confessional, a canonical crime committed as part of supervision The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican must be punished.

Although Leonelli was laicized, he remains a formal member of the community. However, he has requested a formal exemption from his religious vows and a permanent separation from the community, the statement said.

“He will be in exclaust (living outside the community) until the documents for his dispensation by the Holy See are completed, which is expected shortly.” In conclusion, Leonelli can no longer function as a priest and will soon be removed from the The community is separated and therefore you can no longer be a monk.”

The congregation expressed regret over the situation and prayed for “all who were hurt or outraged by his misconduct.”

Upgrade your subscription

In May 2022, a woman identified as Jane Doe in a federal lawsuit filed suit against Leonelli, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, several community apostolates, monasteries and churches in the Bronx, and the Archdiocese of New York.

The lawsuit alleged that Jane Doe and her husband were lay employees of the New York-based religious institute from 2012 to 2015 and that Leonelli groomed the woman for sexual abuse as part of spiritual leadership and while working with the poor.

The lawsuit accused Leonelli of committing violent sexual acts against the woman on numerous occasions and that he told her she would cause people to leave the church while threatening “repercussions on your family and your own reputation.” if she reports the attacks.

Leonelli claimed he had a consensual relationship with the woman. However, her lawyer insisted that no sexual relationship between a spiritual leader and his appointee should be consensual.

Federal court records indicate the lawsuit was likely settled out of court in late 2022 and a motion for voluntary dismissal was filed in January 2023.

—
According to the Franciscan Brothers of the Renewal, Leonelli was removed from office in June 2021 after Jane Doe reported allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

The order initially alleged that Leonelli had been accused of consensual sexual misconduct, but that statement was later retracted, suggesting that it was only after the lawsuit was filed that they realized the woman was alleging sexual abuse and assault.

In their statement Friday, the CFRs acknowledged “an inappropriate sexual relationship with an adult woman,” but the statement did not indicate that the allegations made against Leonelli involved non-consensual sexual activity, nor did it indicate to what extent about it Claim in the court ruling was decided trial.

Leonelli entered the community in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2009. The now laicized priest, who was a professional musician before entering religious life, is a well-known personality in some Catholic circles.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, known by the post-nominal “CFR”, was founded in 1987 as a movement of renewal in the Franciscan religious life of the Capuchins; After a series of steps in the church’s decades-long approval process, they were officially recognized as a religious institute under pontifical law in 2016. The community’s identity is characterized by austere living and religious poverty, life among the poor, Eucharistic piety, pro-life advocacy and passionate evangelical preaching.

The order, founded by eight Capuchin brothers, has grown to around 120 members, including more than 60 priests. Their apostolate is to serve the poor, which they do in monasteries in the United States, Europe and Central America. Members of the community have also become prominent speakers and Catholic media figures.

Subscribe now