CNA Staff, 19 March, 2024 / 12:30 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has laicized an Ohio priest after the clergyman received a life sentence in prison for the sexual abuse of minors, the Diocese of Toledo said this week.
Michael Zacharias, 57, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking by a federal jury in the Northern District of Ohio last May. His crimes, committed between 1999 and 2020, involved three victims, two of whom were minors when Zacharias began abusing them.
Upon his conviction, he faced a minimum of 15 years in prison. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in November that the then-priest received a life sentence for the crimes.
In a press release on Monday, the Diocese of Toledo said that following Zacharias’ convection, diocesan officials “had transmitted the case to the Holy See along with the request to the Holy Father to impose the penalty of direct dismissal from the clerical state.”
“The diocese was recently informed that the Holy Father has imposed upon Zacharias the perpetual penalty of direct dismissal from the clerical state (returning him to the lay state), for the sexual abuse of minors and other reprehensible immoral behavior,” the statement said.
