Former Cape Catholic priest charged with child porn possession

Staff and wire reports

CHICAGO -- A former Cape Girardeau priest was charged by federal prosecutors Tuesday with possession of child pornography.

The Rev. Daniel Schulte, 53, was accused in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with having an unspecified number of sexual images of children on the hard drive of his computer.

Prosecutors said there were no allegations that the Vincentian priest had engaged in sexual activity with children. They said he would be arraigned at an unspecified later time.

Defense attorney Patrick J. Cotter declined to comment on the case.

Shulte had worked at the St. Vincent DePaul parish in Cape Girardeau between 2001 and 2002.

According to the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests, he also worked at the St. Vincent DePaul parish in Perryville, Mo. from 1989 to 1990.

The Rev. Charlie Prost of the Cape Girardeau parish declined to comment.

A representative from the Perryville parish could not be reached for comment.

The Rev. Raymond Van Dorpe, assistant provincial of the Vincentian order, issued a statement saying that "child pornography in whatever form it takes is intrinsically evil."

The statement said that a problem involving Schulte came to the order's attention in March 2005. It said the provincial superior "immediately removed Father Schulte from active ministry and placed him on precautionary administrative leave."

"Father Schulte was moved to St. Louis where he could be supervised and where his access to the Internet could be supervised," the statement said.

Van Dorpe said in a telephone interview that the Internet service provider for Schulte's computer had contacted the order with the suspicion that child pornography had been accessed.

"We confronted Father with the suspicion and asked him to turn over his computer and he did," Van Dorpe said. He said an attorney for the order then contacted the FBI.

The statement said that "in the intervening months, the province has fully cooperated with all law enforcement agencies and will continue to do so."

"The province denounces all forms of sexual misconduct by its members," the statement said.

Last month, another former Cape Girardeau Catholic clergyman, Monsignor Stephen Schneider, was dismissed from his post in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese for violating standards of conduct for alleged sexual misconduct with a minor.

Schneider had been assigned to St. Peter the Apostle Church in Joplin, Mo., but was relieved of all duties as pastor.

Southeast Missourian writer Kyle W. Morrison contributed to this report.