By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A former hospital chaplain and teacher at Elder High School remains a priest in good standing despite a substantiated allegation that he fondled a boy more than 20 years ago, church officials said Thursday.

The priest, David Kelley, is still in active ministry but has been without a job assignment in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati since last year.

Church officials said Kelley received counseling in 1987 at a treatment facility in New Mexico for alcoholism and "sexual issues."

"He was in treatment because of concerns that he spent an inordinate amount of time with teenaged boys," said archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco.

He said Kelley is one of five priests to whom Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk referred last year in a statement that triggered a public outcry over the church's handling of sexual abuse cases.

In his statement, the archbishop refused to identify the priests but said they continued to work for the archdiocese despite "substantiated allegations" of abuse. Two of those priests still have not been identified.

Andriacco said all five priests, including Kelley, received counseling and job assignments that kept them away from children.

He said there were no specific allegations of abuse involving Kelley when he was sent to treatment in New Mexico. But in 1994, the archdiocese received a complaint from a man who said the priest fondled him when he was a teen-ager in the 1970s.

Andriacco said church officials investigated the claim in 1994 and substantiated the allegation. Kelley declined comment Thursday.

Andriacco would not comment when asked if church officials reported the claim.

He said no action had been taken to remove Kelley from active ministry because church officials are awaiting the outcome of a prosecutor's investigation into sexual abuse allegations.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said the archdiocese should act now. "There is absolutely no reason that they could not remove a priest who is a danger to children."

Kelly was ordained in 1974 and taught religion at Elder from 1974 to 1984. He also worked as an associate pastor at St. Therese the Little Flower in Mount Airy and at Our Lady of Victory in Delhi Township, as well as chaplain at Mercy Hospital Anderson.

E-mail dhorn@enquirer.com