Former NH priest sentenced on molestation charge
Fairfax County Circuit Judge Michael Devine sentenced Felix Owino on Friday to five years, but suspended all but nine months of the sentence, according to the court clerk’s office. Owino already has served seven months. Owino pleaded guilty in September NECN · 35 minutes ago
W.Va. priest sentenced on molestation conviction
Fairfax County Circuit Judge Michael Devine sentenced Felix Owino on Friday to five years, but suspended all but nine months of the sentence, according to the court clerk’s office. Owino already has served seven months. Owino pleaded guilty in September NECN · 53 minutes ago
Priest Who Sexually Abused Girl Gets Suspended Sentence; Will Serve 1 1/2 Months
A former local priest will serve less than two more months in jail for sexual assaulting a child in Virginia. Rev. Felix Owino pleaded guilty in September to inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl last year in Fairfax. WTOV 9 · 2 hours ago
Former Ohio Valley Priest Sentenced for Sexual Assault Against Child
FAIRFAX, Va. — A local priest is sentenced for sexual assault in a Fairfax, Va. courtroom. Father Felix Owino was sentenced Friday to five years, with all but nine months suspended. Owino was credited for the seven The State Journal · 1 hour agoFormer WV Priest Sentenced For Virginia Crime
Fr. Felix C. Owino was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison after a previous guilty to plea to aggravated sexual battery involving an 11-year-old girl. The judge suspended five years of the sentence and ordered Owino to jail for nine months.Metro News · 2 hours ago
Tag: Wheeling Jesuit
Jesuit want ads aren’t working
Wheeling Jesuit U., unable to fill its open presidency with a Jesuit, has company. Gonzaga U., in Spokane WA, for one, which has promoted its acting president, a 44-year-old layman, to president, suspending its bylaws to do so.
For another, Creighton U., in Omaha NE, is finding “a good Jesuit hard to find.” Its search committee
might bump into a 21st century reality that’s increasingly pushing other Jesuit universities to hire non-priests as presidents.
Nobody wants to see the day (of a non-Jesuit president) come, but it might come. We have to deal with that, said Bill Fitzgerald, the chairman of Creighton’s board of directors
The day has already come for nine of the 28 Jesuit universities in the U.S., each with a permanent or interim president who is not a Jesuit priest, Rev. Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, told the World-Herald.
We used to assume that (the president’s job) could only be done by a Jesuit, but we’ve learned over the years that it isn’t true, Currie said. It’s not something we should be fearful of. . . . . There’s clearly value in having a Jesuit, but if that person is not available, you have to move in other directions.
Be that as it may, Currie, who was Wheeling Jesuit’s president 1972-82, was an early (and repeated) defender of Wheeling Jesuit’s surprise ouster of its Jesuit president last August after only two years. In the stormy aftermath of the firing, Currie cited “confidentiality” requirements, inadvertently encouraging suspicion by alumni and others of scandal — which was never either alleged or demonstrated. Three Jesuits acting as Wheeling Jesuit trustees, effected the firing. One of the three was himself later replaced by a layman as president of University of Detroit-Mercy.
Wheeling Jesuit suspended its own search in late October, by which time no Jesuit had applied for the position. Last February the university hired a nun, Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill, as new interim president.
Wheeling Jesuit philosophy prof arrested on abuse charge
Bad news out of Wheeling WV, about a Wheeling Jesuit U. philosophy teacher, an African priest, who has been jailed in Virginia on a sex charge.
The Rev. Felix Owino, a priest in the Religious Missionary Institute of the Apostles of Jesus, was arrested on July 8 in Fairfax, Va., on charges of aggravated sexual battery of a minor.
Fr. Owino, a native of Nairobi, Kenya, with a Ph.D. from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, was on summer break, visiting a Herndon (VA) family he knew well. The battery occurred in the family home, according to the charge. The alleged victim is an 11-year-old girl, a member of that family.
He taught at Wheeling Jesuit since 2008, first as a visiting professor, eventually (by July 4) an assistant professor. Most recently he taught an online course in Logic and Knowledge (PHI 105-81), in the first summer session, May 17 to June 28. He lived in a Weirton (WV) parish, saying mass and preaching on weekends. As of July 12, four days after his arrest, he had “no current responsibilities at the university and [was] not expected to return to campus,” the university announced, adding, “During his two years at Wheeling Jesuit, the campus authorities received no student complaints about his conduct.”
Information about him had been scrubbed from the university web site, including this paragraph, available through the Google cache:
Felix Charles Owino, A.J. is a member of the Religious Missionary Congregation of the Apostles of Jesus, the first African Congregation for Africa and the world. Fr. Felix has B.A , M.Th from Apostles of Jesus Affiliate of Urbanian University, Rome; M.A., Ph.D in Philosophy from Duquesne University. He has worked also as an administrator in Uganda Rector of Apostles of Jesus Minor Seminary; also as Rector of the National Shrine of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary in Nairobi Kenya. In United States, Fr. Felix worked in different Universities and Colleges of Higher Learning both in administrative and faculty capacities before joining Wheeling Jesuit University as Assistant Professor of Philosophy.
Fairfax County police responded late last Wednesday to the residence on Franklin Farm Road, where 44-year-old Felix Owino was accused of touching the child inappropriately, Officer Bud Walker, a Fairfax police spokesman, said.
Owino was considered a longtime friend of the family, Walker said.
He was being held without bond at Fairfax County’s Adult Detention Center, with a hearing set for Sept. 2.
Later:
A brief, thorough local story here on the arrest, adding a few details:
On July 8, Felix C. Owino was arrested in Herndon on one count of aggravated sexual battery, according to Fairfax County police. Police responded to the home on Franklin Farm Road, where Owino, 46, was accused of touching the girl inappropriately, said Bud Walker, a Fairfax County police spokesman. Walker said Owino, who remained on the scene and had not attempted to leave, is a longtime acquaintance of the Herndon family. The girl was not physically injured, according to police.
Owino is currently being held without bond at the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax County. A hearing is set for Sept. 2, according to the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia. No attorney information has yet been made available. Owino’s charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and up to a $100,000 fine, Walker said.
He didn’t try to leave. He faces a stiff punishment.
Wheeling Jesuit protest
Supporters are invited to speak up for the fired Jesuit president on a new website, “Save! Wheeling Jesuit University”:
Welcome
It is with great sorrow that we come together today with the departure of our president and dear friend, Fr. Julio Giulietti, S.J. We have all come here to seek the truth, and to know and understand what has happened within the university walls and what has become of the reputation of WJU. In this light, please invite anyone to read the blog and feel free to comment as you wish.
Giulietti was abruptly removed as president earlier this month by his fellow Jesuits acting as the university’s trustees.
Giulietti is shown in a picture with the caption: “Officially still the President of WJU.”
The latest posting is by Charles L. Currie, S.J., who calls Giulietti “a friend and colleague for many years” and tries to pour oil on troubled waters:
No one “wins” in such a situation and the demands of necessary confidentiality prevent folks knowing all the details. I am satisfied that good people on both sides seriously disagreed on what was best for the University and a decision had to be made.
It follows a letter posted yesterday by a supporter who cites “dissent” by Fr. Ed Glynn, S.J., a former WJU trustee, former president of three Jesuit universities, and former superior of the Jesuits’ Maryland Province, who objects to the firing.
The writer, John W. Hwee, of Chestnut Hill, Mass.:
There have been no allegations or evidence of any immoral, unethical, illegal or fiduciary negligent acts by Father Julio. I am appalled and disgusted, but not completely surprised by the underhanded actions of some members of the Board of Directors.
He finds especially “disheartening”
the action of the three Jesuit Trustees [who] fired Father Giulietti without the two-thirds [required] approval [by] the Board of Directors, without the full attendance of the Trustees and while Father Julio was on vacation.
At one point, Giulietti said he would sue the Jesuits. But there has been no report of a suit.
Blithe Spirit 