Former priest with Lancaster ties sentenced to probation for sexual abuse of altar boys

A former Roman Catholic priest who served in Lancaster County three decades ago was sentenced to probation for sexually assaulting two altar boys in Dauphin County from 1997 and 2002.

John Allen, 77, who now lives in West Manchester Township, York County, will serve five years' probation and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, in accordance with a plea agreement, according to the York Daily Record.

Allen pleaded guilty to indecent assault and corruption of minors for sexually assaulting the two children at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church in Pennbrook between 1997 and 2002.

He admitted to touching the children over their clothes, YDR reports.

The boys were between 10 and 12 at the time, but didn't report to law enforcement until more than a decade later.

Allen was removed from St. Margaret Mary's church in 2002 by the Diocese of Harrisburg; and four years later, Pope Benedict XVI formally removed him from the priesthood.

Allen served at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lancaster from 1986 to 1992. He was one of 301 priests, deacons and seminarians named in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report in 2018.

While he was a priest at St. Joseph's church, he was charged with soliciting sex from an undercover Lancaster city police officer.

The report said that parishioners notified the diocese of the arrest and said that Allen would invite altar boys to his room.

Allen had a nine-month hiatus before being assigned to parishes in Cumberland and Dauphin Counties before resigning in 2002.

According to the grand jury report, a man said Allen paid him for sex on several occasions while he was a priest in Lancaster.

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