Alabama priest leaves clergy following allegations of affair with 17-year-old girl
A longtime Roman Catholic priest in Alabama has voluntarily left the clergy after a woman alleged to his superiors that he provided her financial support in exchange for “private companionship” including s3x, beginning when she was 17.
Robert Sullivan’s self-imposed removal from the priesthood – known as laicization – was announced Wednesday, Nov. 26, the day before the US holiday of Thanksgiving, in a public statement from Birmingham, Alabama, by Bishop Steven Raica.
The woman who accused Sullivan, Heather Jones, filed her allegations in a formal written statement to the Birmingham diocese.
Jones, now 33, also maintained that Sullivan had paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars to remain silent about their arrangement, backing up her claim with financial and email records, along with a copy of a legal agreement.
Raica’s letter said a subsequent church investigation into “the significant payments alleged to have been made by then-father Sullivan … found no link between the allegations and any diocesan, parish or school funds”.
These four months since the allegations surfaced have been challenging in the life of our local church,” Raica’s letter added. “I am grateful for the patience and resilience of all who have been affected directly or indirectly by this matter
Members of the priesthood Sullivan, 61, resigned from promise to be abstinent and teach that s3x out of wedlock is sinful. Furthermore, people younger than 18 are classified as minors and s3xual contact with them is considered to be abusive under policies which US Catholic bishops adopted in the early 2000s amid the worldwide church’s decades-old clergy molestation scandal.
However, in Alabama, the legal age of consent is 16.
In her statement to Sullivan’s superiors, Jones recounted growing up in foster care after being removed from her mother’s custody “due to severe neglect”.
She wrote that she lacked reliable “adult support” during her formative years and therefore tried to make ends meet by working as a dancer at an “adult establishment” outside Birmingham.
She wrote that she lacked reliable “adult support” during her formative years and therefore tried to make ends meet by working as a dancer at an “adult establishment” outside Birmingham.
Jones said she was 17 when she met Sullivan at that establishment, where she managed to land a job despite being under an applicable age limit. Sullivan was a regular patron, made it a point to tip her during her shifts and soon offered to “help change [her] life” if she called him on a phone number he slipped her, she wrote.