Bruce Ritter, the priest who built the largest shelter network in the country for runaway youths and then resigned amid charges of sexual and financial improprieties, has left the Franciscan order and affiliated with a diocese in southern India.
According to Franciscan officials, Ritter, 64, has received permission from the Vatican to leave the religious order and to join the Diocese of Alleppey in the Kerala region of India. A statement from the Franciscan order did not say what type of work he would be assigned.
According to several published reports, Ritter had not complied with the order’s directives—issued after his resignation last year as head of Covenant House—that he take a leave of absence, return to community living in a Franciscan friary, and seek counseling.
Last year investigators for the order reported they had turned up “extensive evidence” of sexual misconduct, but cleared him of financial wrongdoing. Ritter refused to cooperate with the investigation and has consistently denied the allegations.
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