Fritz and Stanley prohibited from working with youth in Kalamazoo Diocese

KALAMAZOO, MI (WTVB) – Two former Branch County priests are among those on a list released Thursday by the Diocese of Kalamazoo who are disqualified or prohibited from working or volunteering with children or youth in any parish, school, agency, institution or entity within the Diocese.

The two former Branch County priests are the Reverend Richard Fritz of Lakeport who served at St. Mary’s Assumption Catholic Church in Bronson between 1990 and 2016 and Father Brian Stanley of Coloma who was at one time the pastor of Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Coldwater and Our Lady of Fatima in Union City.

Priests included on the list are also forbidden from engaging in public ministry.

Bishop Edward M. Lohse said they made significant updates to the diocese’s Child and Youth Protection policies for three reasons.

The diocese says the people banned from working and volunteering with children are on the list because “in the judgment of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, they have been credibly accused of actions that disqualify and prohibit them from working or volunteering with children or youth.”

Bishop Lohse says they made the announcement ahead of the Attorney General’s Office releasing its investigation of the Diocese of Kalamazoo later this spring.

(Michael Arney contributed to this report)