It’s happened again. A priest has been accused of sex abuse and removed from ministry. This time, though, he has an unusually high profile.

From the New York Times:

It may not be the most heavily attended church in the area, but the imposing Roman Catholic church on 141st Street, St. Charles Borromeo, known locally as Harlem’s Cathedral, has become known in recent years for such stirring triumphs and humbling lows that some people see it as a kind of tragic, if not bipolar, character residing in the neighborhood.

Pope John Paul II visited the church in 1979, and people still remember the pomp and pageantry it brought to the block. But the man most responsible for that visitation — the church’s pastor at the time, Msgr. Emerson J. Moore, a rising star who in just a few years would become the first black bishop in the Archdiocese of New York — died in a Minnesota AIDS hospice in 1995 after a long battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction.

And now, with another rising star at the helm — Msgr. Wallace A. Harris, who gave an invocation at Gov. David A. Paterson’s inauguration and like his predecessor, Bishop Moore, took a leading role in organizing the most recent papal visit to New York — the pendulum has swung once again.

On Sunday, parishioners at Mass were told that the archdiocese had removed Monsignor Harris from his parish and priestly duties while it looked into complaints by two people that he had sexually abused them about 20 years ago.

Neither the archdiocese nor the Manhattan district attorney’s office would provide more details. But people familiar with the district attorney’s investigation said the complaints involved the fondling of two boys, about 13 or 14 years old, when they were students at the Cathedral School in Manhattan, where Monsignor Harris was assigned before becoming pastor at St. Charles Borromeo.

“Must be something about that building,” said Roger Firby, 50, a retired corrections officer who has lived most of his life within walking distance of the church. “Always got some trouble.”

Another priest assigned to the parish was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl in 2003 and sentenced to a prison term of four months.

“It is just so unfair that we are known for these things, especially to Pastor Harris,” said Trina Tuckett, a longtime parishioner and a former member of the parish’s board of directors, who joined a steady stream of congregants who walked by the locked doors of the church on Monday — most of them voicing disbelief, anger and confusion.

“He is a fine human being,” she said. “He has brought nothing but good to this community. How do we know that these charges are not made up? Why are they bringing this up 20 years later?”

Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the first accuser came to the archdiocese in June. After an internal investigation, he said, the church sent the case to the district attorney’s office, but did not remove Monsignor Harris because it is church policy “not to alert the target” of a potential criminal investigation.

During the district attorney’s investigation, the second accusation against Monsignor Harris emerged, and the diocese ordered him to step aside, Mr. Zwilling said. The five-year statute of limitations has lapsed in both cases, and charges are not likely to be brought, said Alicia Maxey Greene, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.

There are more details at the Times link. Let’s keep this priest and his flock in our prayers.

Photo: by Todd Heisler/New York Times