Statement on allegation of sexual abuse against former Archdiocese of OKC priest, Ben Zoeller

On August 22, 2018, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City released a statement that they had received an allegation of sexual abuse against a former priest, Ben Zoeller. The alleged abuse took place in 1985. The Archdiocese stated, “Archbishop Coakley expressed profound sadness upon receiving the letter and apologized for the abuse suffered at the hands of a former priest,” and confirmed they are working with local authorities.

According to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Zoeller was ordained a priest in 1965 when there was only one Catholic diocese in the state of Oklahoma, the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Zoeller’s first assignment as a priest, from June 1965 to June 1968, was at the Church of St. Mary in Tulsa, which is now a parish of the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma, founded in 1973.

The Diocese of Tulsa joins the efforts of the Archdiocese in asking anyone who has knowledge of abuse, past or present, to contact local authorities, to call the Oklahoma Department of Human Services statewide abuse of a minor hotline (800-522-3511), and to call the Abuse of Minors Pastoral Response Hotline for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City (405-720-9878).

On August 17, 2018, when addressing the Grand Jury Report in Pennsylvania, Bishop David Konderla, Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma, stated, “I promise you and the people in Eastern Oklahoma that I will work with my brother bishops to eradicate this evil, to erect structures of accountability, especially for us bishops, and to strive toward holiness.” Bishop Konderla invited the Christian Faithful to do acts of spiritual reparation and to pray the Novena of St. Michael for “the protection, healing, and unity of the Church.”

Recalling the words of St. Paul, the Diocese of Tulsa will “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but [will] instead expose them” to the light (Eph 5:11). Bishop Konderla and all those who serve in the Diocese will pray as if everything depended upon God and will work as if everything depended upon them until this wickedness is removed from the Church and the victims of abuse have their justice and healing.
 

Diane Clay
Director of Communications, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City
[email protected], (405) 426-9075

Dave Crenshaw,
Director of Communications, Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma
[email protected], (918) 307-4920