05:03 PM CST on Thursday, March 25, 2004

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest serving three years in jail for sex abuse is seeking information on his victim as part of an effort to remain a cleric, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.

KMOV Bryan Kuchar

From his St. Louis County jail cell, the Rev. Bryan Kuchar has written letters to supporters and parishioners at Assumption Catholic Church, seeking character references as part of his effort to block the church's attempt to remove him as a clergyman.

"If you are aware of my accuser and his personal and family history, please leave a daytime or evening telephone number where Rev. Bertrand can contact you for a confidential testimonial statement," Kuchar said in a letter sent this month.

The Rev. Vincent Bertrand, a Springfield, Mo., priest and expert in canon law, is serving as the equivalent of a defense lawyer for Kuchar's bid to remain a priest.

Bertrand, in an interview with The Associated Press, defended Kuchar's letter.

"He does have a right to present his defense," Bertrand said.

A parishioner provided a copy of the letter last week to Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. SNAP provided copies to the Post-Dispatch and the family of Kuchar's victim.

The victim's mother said she was shocked.

"This took me totally by surprise," the mother told the Post-Dispatch. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think he could be dragged into this again. Two trials were enough."

The victim, now 23, was 14 when Kuchar was associate pastor at Assumption, in south St. Louis County, in 1995. The victim made the allegations for the first time in March 2000 when he was a patient in a drug treatment center, claiming he had oral and anal sex with Kuchar.

Kuchar was arrested in 2002 while serving as associate pastor at the St. Louis Cathedral. A jury in his first trial in May deadlocked. He was convicted at a second trial in August.

In both trials, prosecutors presented a 20-minute audiotape of Kuchar telling detectives he had a sexual relationship with the boy. Kuchar later said he was coerced into making the confession.

At the second trial, another priest testified that Kuchar had admitted the sexual relationship to him; a nun told the court that Kuchar had made incriminating remarks to her.

Msgr. Richard Stika, vicar general and chancellor of the St. Louis Archdiocese, said Wednesday that Kuchar wrote the recent letter without the permission of the church and used some inappropriate language in it, particularly his references to the victim and his family.

Kuchar can no longer wear a Roman collar or perform Mass or any other duties of what is called his "public ministry." But he remains a priest until he is laicized, a process of removing him from the priesthood altogether.

Kuchar said in the letter that he expects he will never be returned to public ministry here because of the publicity surrounding his case.

In a recent meeting with the victim's mother, Stika said, Archbishop Raymond Burke "made it clear that Kuchar is not coming back as a priest in this diocese."

The victim's mother said the letter Kuchar sent out left her with the feeling "that one more time this man has more rights than my son, even though he is a convicted felon."