As a teenager, James was a parishioner and student at St. Vincent de Paul in Mount Vernon. During this time, he was sexually abused by Father Francis Schaefer, the church’s assistant pastor.

James isn’t alone. Charles was routinely abused by Schaefer for approximately three years, while he was a student at St. Vincent de Paul High School. Now in his 70s, the grief still affects him.

“It’s been hanging there like damn dead weight all these years,” said Charles.

On March 1, the Columbus Diocese of the Catholic Church released a list of clergymen who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. Schaefer’s name was among a list of six priests who had sexually abused minors and had been employees of Catholic parishes in Knox County at some time in their career.

Charles still clearly remembers the first time Schaefer abused him. It was during a weekend trip to Cleveland. Schaefer took two other boys on the trip, who told Charles he had to share a hotel room with the priest.

“I didn’t think nothing of it, until nighttime,” he said. “I got out of it the first night, I started crying. The second night, tears didn’t count.”

After he was assaulted, he went into the bathroom and threw up. He was 14.

Charles said that Schaefer would masturbate and perform oral sex on him, but that he was never forced to perform sex acts on the priest.

At the time, the boys were afraid to tell anyone. They worried that no one would believe them and that there would be repercussions to challenging the priest’s authority.

“You didn’t confront your priest about stuff like that,” said Nancy, whose cousin was one of Schaefer’s victims. “Things like that were kept very secret. Priests had a lot of power over people’s lives back then.”

“It was beat in our heads from the minute we went to first grade, the priest was Jesus on earth,” explained Charles.

The stigma around homosexuality was another reason victims kept quiet.

“If you knew a person was gay, they were like an outcast. You didn’t want around them, you didn’t want them around you,” said James. “You could bring it up with the other people who were molested but that was it.”

Charles and James said that Schaefer used the appearance of generosity to establish relationships with teenage boys at the church. Both were among a group of teenage boys Schaefer hired to clean the school building. Schaefer reportedly paid them each $60 a week, let them borrow his car and took them to high-end clubs and on weekend trips.

Giving a child special privileges and responsibilities is typical of grooming, said Dr. Howard Fradkin, a psychologist and counselor who specializes in helping male sexual assault victims. Nancy believes the priest specifically targeted boys who lacked strong father figures.

“He was very good at picking out vulnerable kids,” she said.

Charles and James told the News that the father of another boy Schaefer molested was an alcoholic and that a fourth victim’s father had committed suicide.

James rarely saw his father due to his parents’ divorce, but eventually confided in his aunt and uncle, who drove him to the Columbus Diocese to report the abuse. He was interviewed by six bishops, one at a time, while his aunt and uncle waited outside. He suspects that out of the six, only one believed him.

“Nowadays, they would go to the police department and report something like that. Back in those days, they didn’t know what to do, they figured you’d just go to the diocese,” said James.

James and his family were assured that the diocese would take action. After two or three months of waiting, James’s uncle went to the diocese a second time, threatening to go to the police if Schaefer was not removed within two hours. By the time he returned to Mount Vernon, Schaefer was gone.

Before he was removed, Schaefer had James expelled from St. Vincent. He graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1966.

The only reparation the diocese offered him was counseling. James wasn’t interested.

“Why would I want to go to counseling with the same people who did this?” he said.

Although the boys mostly kept the abuse a secret at the time, James said that at least eight of his classmates have since confided to him that they were also molested by Schaefer.

“A lot of the guys have approached me … and thanked me for turning him in,” he explained.

Four years after he was removed from St. Vincent de Paul, Schaefer was appointed to Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Newark. He was the pastor at Blessed Sacrament from 1970 to 1984 and became a well-respected member of the community. According to articles from the Newark Advocate, he was the chairman of the county commissioners’ task force on drug abuse, the vice president of the Licking County Ministerial Association and Catholic chaplain for the police and fire departments. In 1975, he was elected to represent the Newark vicariate in the Columbus Diocese Senate.

In 1993, two multi-million dollar lawsuits were filed with the Licking County Court of Common Pleas, stemming from Schaefer’s time as a clergyman in Newark. The suits were filed by two men and were brought against Schaefer, Church of the Blessed Sacrament and the Diocese of Columbus. A collective 25 counts included two of sexual battery brought against Schaefer and numerous counts of negligence against the church and diocese.

Both suits cited Schaefer’s time at St. Vincent, alleging that he had “systematically sexually molested at least a half-dozen parish children entrusted to his care” during his time there and that an uncle of one of Schaefer’s victims had reported the abuse in 1966.

In testimony given May 16, 1995, Monsignor Joseph M. Hendricks confirmed that the diocese had documentation indicating that the diocese was aware of an allegation of sexual abuse by Schaefer in 1965, the time he was at St. Vincent.

In the civil suits, the first man claimed that Schaefer molested him for approximately five years, beginning when he was nine years old. The official complaint stated that the abuse included kissing, fondling and oral sex and that Schaefer took advantage of the boy’s trust by “enticing, encouraging and instructing” him to perform sexual acts. It also asserted that Schaefer convinced the boy that the sexual activity was appropriate and “the only way that God gave him to show his love for (him).”

The complaint filed by the second man stated that he received “guidance and counseling” from Schaefer beginning in 1973 and Schaefer gave him “high-paying” jobs on church premises during the 1973-74 school year. The abuse began and ended in 1975.

Attorneys representing the church denied the allegations and fought to dismiss the case, citing an alleged lack of evidence and an expired statute of limitations. After the court ordered the Diocese of Columbus to produce documents from its archives, the diocese’s counsel appealed, asserting that the court’s mandate violated Canon Law 489 and the religious protections of the First Amendment. The court rejected the appeal.

Of the cases, one was settled, with provisions barring both parties from discussing the outcome. The other case was voluntarily dismissed.

When the Diocese of Columbus released the list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor, the bishop of Columbus attached a letter apologizing to the victims and affirming the diocese’s commitment to working with law enforcement.

Charles and James say it’s too little, too late.

“The church has done nothing,” James said. “They move them around to different places and it just continues.”

“They’ve spent decades denying it,” said Fradkin. “Unfortunately, even after the Catholic Church began to say that they were going to do something about this, the abuse continued because they didn’t have a zero tolerance policy. They just kept moving these priests around ... and it’s not like the Catholic Church is alone. You can find sexual abuse in any religious group in the country.”

Both men have tried to return to church, but find it too traumatic.

“I’ve tried to go back to church, thinking ‘It wasn’t the religion as a whole …’ But I’d get in there and the preacher would come walking down and I’d get up and walk out. I just can’t do it,” said Charles.

Charles and James said they hope that other victims of sexual assault will tell someone.

“I think everyone has the assumption that if they’re put in that position, they will say no. Well, you don’t know until you’re put in that position,” Charles said. “They’ve got to remember it’s not their fault.”

If you are a victim of sexual assault, there is help available. New Directions Shelter in Mount Vernon offers support services and a helpline at 740-397-HELP (4357). The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available at 1-800-273-TALK. Members of the military can also call the Department of Defense Safe Helpline at 877-995-5247.