St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church — Local services in New York

METRO EXCLUSIVE Franciscan friars accused of racist rants at St. Francis Friends of the Poor By Kathianne Boniello March 1, 2015 | 9:48am Enlarge Image The three friars are in residence at St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street. J.C. Rice Forgive me, fathers, for you have sinned.

Three Catholic priests who run homeless charities in Manhattan are anything but Christian behind closed doors, longtime female staffers at St. Francis Friends of the Poor claim in a lawsuit.

Franciscan Friars John McVean, John Felice and Tom Walters subjected the women to racist rants and took a veritable vow of silence as the ladies were repeatedly manhandled for three years by a leering, oversexed co-worker, court papers allege.

The trio “ruled St. Francis with an iron fist and fostered a culture of intimidation,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit. “The priests, who many at St. Francis suspect occasionally come to work drunk, often lashed out at employees and frequently screamed at subordinates.”

McVean, Felice and Walters — all friars in residence at St. Francis of Assisi Church on West 31st Street — launched their nonprofit in 1980 and now house 250 mentally ill men and women at three Manhattan locations. The charity is independent of the Archdiocese of New York.

McVean routinely referred to the building manager as “a goat-loving Muslim,” “an idiot Muslim” and “often said that ‘Muslims are dangerous,’ ” according to court papers.

Latinos rated no higher with McVean, say employees Donna Graves and Ann O’Leary, both of Brooklyn, and Maria Colon, of Manhattan, who target the nonprofit, the priests and a co-worker in their lawsuit.

“A lot of Latinos are lazy or dumb and that is why they don’t know English,” McVean allegedly said on “multiple occasions,” according to court papers.

When Colon related to McVean an anecdote about her 14-year-old son coming to the aid of a teenage girl who was being bullied, the priest allegedly asked, “Well, didn’t he pull a knife out? Don’t all Latinos carry them?”

The nonprofit’s cleaning and maintenance workers were simply “lazy Ricans” who didn’t need an invite to the annual Christmas party because “they wouldn’t know what’s going on . . . none of them speak English,” McVean allegedly said.

Blacks were not welcome either, according to the lawsuit, in which the women say one program manager was ordered not to interview “too many blacks” for housing with Friends of the Poor.

Graves, who is black, showed McVean a picture of her 89-year-old stepmother, and allegedly got the reply, “She does look amazing. Black don’t crack,” according to the legal filing.

“There have been so many inappropriate things that Father McVean has said over 26 years that it is impossible to recount even most of them,” the women charge.

It was such hell that two of the women, O’Leary and Colon — both raised Catholic — grapple with “a fear and an overwhelming anxiety of priests” and are near to abandoning their faith altogether, according to court papers.

The most traumatizing experience, the women say, came at the hands of Friends of the Poor program director Gyasi Bramos-Hantman, who subjected the women to an atmosphere that “would not be tolerated in any locker room,” according to the lawsuit.

About “twice a month,” Bramos-Hantman would corner the women for unwanted hugs, rubbing himself against them and once embracing O’Leary so forcibly “it loosened [her] colostomy and drainage bag,” she claims.

The women turned to McVean, Felice and Walters for help, but were threatened with termination by the priests, who engaged in “a massive coverup,” they allege.

The three priests denied the...

I have been attending St Francis Assis for over a year now. I go there almost everyday from Monday to Friday for the 12pm mass on my lunch break. On January 13th I went up for communion as normal I took it in my hands step to the side to put it in my mouth, and to my applaud. Fr: Brian Jordan shouted at me to come back to him and put the communion in my mouth in front of him. I was shock I'm still shock. I'm a stance catholic I was born and raised in catholic family. I took my first communion at the age of 11yrs old, and I have attended many churches, and never I had experience such disgusting behavior by a priest. What did he think I was going to do with the communion? Since when a priest is a communion police? I take communion the same way all the time for many years, I've been taking it the same way also for over a year at St Francis Assis , and from Fr: Brian Jordan many times before. I can't catch myself about what transpired yesterday. I am 53yrs old. I am a law abiding citizen. I refuse to be treated the way I was treated by this priest. By me making this complaint it might even save his life because he might try it with the wrong person and they might react with force. What has Happen to our world today? Growing up we look up to our priests. They are suppose to be true servants of god, where they show love and respect to each and everyone.

I hope someone will see this, and have a serious talk with him. He is suppose to welcome people in, not chase them away. For the server Pedro Tavarez stop condoning wrong. Fr Brian Is out of order. I am not a child he said to me 'you come back here put that in your mouth' was that not him being disrespectful to me.So because I told him his behavior is unacceptable and uncalled for and give back the communion I am disrespectful?. what could he have said to me? he was wrong I'm not a child. he need to know his place. You give the communion and that is it. The church is not a...

I am a christian who usually attends non denomination church, but came for a midnight service during Christmas and it was the most divine service! it was below 0degrees because of the snow storm and they said it was more quiet than how last year was. Other church service made it online but we were glad the snowstorm did not stop them from doing a mass.

Unpretentious and thoughtful, the choir feels like broadway and brought tears to our eyes, the message was clear and a great reminder of how we need to focus on him above all, the interior is spectacular and we had a chat with one of the pastor who shared that they serve warm food to the homeless. He was patient, loving and almost made me want to serve in that church (If only I live here)

They made it clear that they welcome everyone despite what you are going through, your color, background, gay or straight. I also thiught their christmas poster of what Joseph and Mary would look like in current days on NYC to be intriguing...