Vatican clears former church official of sex abuse allegation

A former high-ranking member of the Los Angeles Archdiocese was cleared of sexual misconduct charges after a 10-year investigation by the Catholic Church, officials announced.

Monsignor Richard Loomis had been accused in a 2003 lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy while teaching at a Los Angeles area Catholic high school. A second person claiming to have been abused had also been identified by archdiocesan investigators.

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FOR THE RECORD

An earlier headline on this post said the L.A. Archdiocese had cleared a former church official of sex abuse. The official was cleared by a tribunal of the Holy See in the Vatican.

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The abuse allegedly took place between 1969 and 1971, while Loomis was a seminarian before being ordained as a priest.

Loomis had been serving as pastor of Saints Felicitas and Perpetua Parish in San Marino at the time of the accusations and was placed on temporary inactive ministry pending the investigation.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Saturday released a statement on the resolution of the case.

“After ten years of exhaustive investigation and canonical trial, a tribunal of the Holy See has definitively determined and ruled that no allegations of sexual misconduct of any kind alleged against Monsignor Richard Loomis have been proven. Monsignor Loomis has always professed his innocence of these accusations,” the statement said.

“Now that the allegations against him have been conclusively resolved, Canon Law provides that the temporary restrictions on Monsignor Loomis’ public exercise of his priesthood have ceased.”

Loomis, 68, the former vicar for clergy of the Archdiocese who oversaw allegations of misconduct against priests, was a top aide to former head of the Archdiocese, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.

He could not be reached for comment.

Twitter: @CarlaRiveraLat