A longtime Roman Catholic priest in Alabama has voluntarily left the clergy after a woman alleged to his superiors that he provided her financial support in exchange for “private company” including sex that began when she was 17.
The self-imposed removal of Robert Sullivan from the priesthood – known as laicization – was announced Wednesday, a day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, in a public statement from Birmingham, Alabama, by Bishop Steven Raica.
The woman who accused Sullivan, Heather Jones, made her allegations in a formal written statement to the diocese of Birmingham which she then shared exclusively with the Guardian in August. Jones, now 33, also claimed Sullivan had paid her hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep quiet about their arrangement, backing up her claim with financial and email records, along with a copy of a legal settlement.
Raica’s letter said that a subsequent church investigation into “the significant payments alleged to have been made by then father Sullivan … found no connection between the allegations and any diocesan, parish or school funds”.
“These four months since the allegations came out have been challenging in the life of our local church,” Raica’s letter added. “I am grateful for the patience and resilience of all those who have been directly or indirectly affected by this matter.”
Members of the priesthood from which Sullivan, 61, chose to resign promise to be abstinent and teach that sex outside marriage is a sin. In addition, persons younger than 18 are classified as minors – and sexual contact with them is considered abusive – under policies that the American Catholic Bishops adopted in the early 2000s amid the church clergy molestation scandal around the world that has lasted for decades.
However, there is no indication that Sullivan was scrutinized by lay authorities. The legal age of sexual consent in Alabama is 16. And law enforcement investigators have in some cases been reluctant to act in cases of religious clergy accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with teenagers who had reached the legal age of consent.
Alabama is also not among the US states with laws that say an imbalance of power makes it impossible to have consensual sex between clergy and legal adults who are under the spiritual guidance of clergy.
In her statement to Sullivan’s superiors as well as in an interview with the Guardian, Jones recounted that she grew up in foster care after being removed from her mother’s custody “due to severe neglect”. She wrote that she had no reliable “adult support” during her formative years so she tried to cope by working as a dancer in an “adult establishment” outside Birmingham.
Jones said she was 17 when she met Sullivan at that establishment, where she managed to get a job despite being under the applicable age limit. Sullivan was a regular patron, made it a point to make up for it during her shifts and soon offered to “help change [her] life” if she called him on a phone number he slipped her, she wrote.
Sullivan then proposed “forming an ongoing relationship that would include financial support in exchange for a private company,” Jones wrote. Jones said Sullivan continued to take her shopping, dining, drinking, and hotel rooms in at least six different Alabama cities in part to engage in sex – starting when she was 17 and over the course of several years.
It was said that he initially presented himself as a doctor, although Jones later learned that he was a priest.
“At the time, I was a minor, with no experience navigating adult relationships, and no understanding of how power and influence can be used to manipulate someone vulnerable,” Jones wrote in her complaint. “I was hesitant but in the end I agreed because of his persistence and the desperate state I was in.”
Jones said she struggled with depression, addiction and emotional instability during her relationship with Sullivan. She said she eventually spoke out against him because Sullivan had continued to work closely with families and their children as the other popular pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows church in Homewood, Alabama, leaving her worried that “others could be vulnerable to the same kind of manipulation and exploitation” she described as enduring.
Additionally, in 2020, Raica appointed Sullivan to serve as one of the vicars general of the Birmingham diocese, meaning he held a high-ranking administrative position.
Sullivan told the congregants at the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows on August 3rd that he was taking “personal leave”. He did not provide a reason, but Jones had by then filed her complaint against him with the diocese.
Raica issued a letter to congregants of his diocese informing them of the allegations against Sullivan and the reason for his leave on August 13, the same day the Guardian reported the Jones story. That letter also said the diocese had forwarded Jones’ allegations to the Vatican’s body that investigates cases of clerical misconduct.
Sullivan later asked Pope Leo XIV to “be dispensed from all obligations” of the priesthood, said Wednesday’s statement from Raica. The pontiff accepted the request on Monday, said Raica’s missive.
Jones did not immediately comment on Sullivan’s laicization.
Sullivan was ordained a priest in 1993, according to an earlier post on Our Lady of Sorrows social media.