Gregory P. Furjanic

Ordained:
Diocese: Diocese of Erie

From the Report I of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:

Reverend Gregory P. Furjanic served in the St. Anthony of Padua parish as a religious Friar attached to the Croatian Franciscan Friars out of Chicago, Illinois.  At that time, the Diocese of Erie permitted an outside religious order priest to handle the ministry in one of their parishes. The Diocese retained minimal paperwork on Furjanic, since he was technically not one of their priests.

In 2005, there was an accusation made against Furjanic related to an incident that occurred in the early 1970s.  The second incident occurred in the mid-1980s. Then, the records showed that in the 1990s an accusation against Furjanic came into the Diocese.  The Diocese sent Furjanic to the Erie Ecclesia center for counseling and then on to the St. Luke’s Institute for advanced counseling. His case was ultimately forwarded to the Congregation for Institutions of Consecrated Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life. On July 8, 1996, the Congregation removed Furjanic’s priestly authority.

The Grand Jury learned that one of Furjanic’s victims later took his own life.

In 2005, an individual from Lutheran Social Services in St. Petersburg, Florida contacted Father Robert Smith, Vicar General of the Diocese of Erie, to investigate Furjanic’s history. Furjanic had allegedly attempted to obtain religious credentials in Mobile, Alabama and in St. Petersburg, but was rejected based upon his past history. It was documented that Furjanic represented himself as a clergy member associated with Lutheran Ministry and had the title “Reverend” on his business cards.

Additional information regarding the widespread sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Dioceses of Pennsylvania and the systemic cover up by senior church officials is compiled in the Pennsylvania Diocese Victim’s Report published by the Pennsylvania Attorney General following a two-year grand jury investigation.  A complete copy of the Report is available on the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s website.