Gerald Funcheon
(Photo taken from bishopaccountability.org)
FORT WAYNE — The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend has added the name of Gerald Funcheon, who was a member of the Crosier Congregation, not a diocesan priest, to the list of those priests credibly accused of abuse of a minor.
Funcheon has been added to the Diocese list of those credibly accused of at least one act of sexual abuse of a minor because of a credible accusation of abuse that took place while assigned in the diocese. He is on the list of those credibly accused of abuse of a minor published by the Crosier Fathers,
Funcheon was teacher and athletic director from 1966-1969 at Our Lady of the Lake Seminary, Syracuse, and a teacher/prefect of discipline at Wawasee Preparatory, Syracuse, from 1973-1975.
Funcheon was a member of the Crosier Congregation, and the lone credible accusation of abuse took place while he was assigned in the diocese.
Francheon was ordained May 22, 1965, and removed from ecclesiastical ministry April 1, 1993. He reportedly retired in 1995.
According to the website for bishop accountability, which is documenting the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, Funcheon was moved many times during his career with assignments in Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida, Texas, Hawaii, California and on military bases in the U.S. and Germany. Funcheon allegedly admitted to sexually abusing numerous children.
Allegedly a man claimed in a 2007 lawsuit when he was a 10-year-old boy in the summer of 1965, he was repeatedly sexually assaulted, battered and molested by Funcheon at the Lake Wawasee Catholic Youth Organized Camp.
According to information from the diocese, prior to and after his employment in Syracuse, Funcheon was on Crosier assignments outside the Diocese of Fort-Wayne-South Bend from 1965-1966, 1969-1973 and 1975-1987.