Msgr. John Stephen Mraz

Assignment Record– Msgr. John Stephen Mraz

Summary of Case: John Stephen Mraz was ordained for the Diocese of Allentown in 1975. He worked or resided in parishes in Reading, Birdsboro, Sinking Spring, Limeport, Tuscarora, Allentown, Northampton and Emmaus. He was also a teacher at Reading and Allentown Catholic High Schools, and vice principal and director of spiritual activities at Marian High School in Tamaqua. He served as chaplain at Lehigh University and was for many years assistant superintendent in the diocesan Department of Education. Additionally, he held the position of director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. He was elevated to Monsignor in 2008.

On September 13, 2016 Mraz was arrested on charges related to the discovery of child pornography on his two laptop computers. A parishioner found the images in late July while updating the devices, and informed the diocese in early August. The diocese contacted law enforcement. Pastor of St. Ann's in Emmaus, Mraz had been away for a number of weeks due to medical issues and was living at a retirement home for priests. Parishioners were not told that their pastor was being investigated, nor was their assistant priest, who asked the congregation to pray for and visit the ailing Mraz. It wasn't until Mraz' arrest that the diocese issued a public statement. He was removed from public ministry.

Ordained: 1975

Start	Stop	Assignments	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1975 Diocese of Allentown Bishop was Joseph Mark McShea (1961-1983).	1976	St. Joseph's	Reading	PA	3/3 In residence	St. Joseph's had a school with 210 students.
1975	1976	St. Cecilia's Chapel	Reading	PA		This was a mission of St. Joseph's.
1975	1980	Reading Catholic High School	Reading	PA	teacher	Reading Catholic had 706-628 students.
1976	1978	St. Paul's	Reading	PA	3/3 In residence	St. Paul's had a school with 89 students until 1977, when it closed.
1978	1979	Immaculate Conception	Birdsboro	PA	2/2 In residence
1979	1980	St. Ignatius Loyola	Sinking Spring	PA	3/3 In residence	St. Ignatius Loyola had a school with 330 students.
1980	1983	St. Joseph's	Limeport	PA	2/2 In residence
		Marian High School	Tamaqua	PA	vice-principal; director of spiritual activities
1983 McShea was succeeded as Allentown bishop by Thomas Jerome Welsh (1983-1997).	1989	St. Bertha's	Tuscarora	PA	1/1
1989	1994	Lehigh University Newman Center	Bethlehem	PA	director, Catholic chaplain
1989 Edward Peter Cullen followed Welsh as Allentown bishop (1997-2009).	2002	Diocesan Dept. of Education	Allentown	PA	assistant superintendent
		Allentown Catholic High School	Allentown	PA	teacher
1994	2002	St. Thomas More	Allentown	PA	3/3 In residence	St. Thomas More had a school with 566-642 students, and a religious education program with 573-481 students.
2002	2008	Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary	Northampton	PA	1/1	Assumption of the BVM had a religious education program with 105-181 students.
2005 John Oliver Barres succeeded Cullen (2009-).	2015	Diocesan Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue	Allentown	PA	director	Mraz was elevated to Monsignor in 2008.
2008	August 2016	St. Ann's	Emmaus • Mraz was arrested in September 2016 due to the discovery of images and videos of child pornography, depicting underage males, found on his two laptop computers. A parishioner informed the diocese August 1st or 2nd, after he found the porn in late July while updating the computers for Mraz. There were numerous files, one entitled "naked little boys."	PA	1/2	St. Ann's had a school with 282-324 students, and a religious education program with 362-425 students. At the time of his arrest Mraz had been absent from the parish for about a month for medical issues. Parishioners were not told of the investigation into Mraz' child porn possession. They were asked to visit Mraz and to pray for him by the the assistant priest, who was also unaware of the situation. Mraz admitted to using his computers to search for child pornography. Per the diocese's September 13, 2016 statement, "Monsignor Mraz has been removed from public ministry and cannot present himself as a priest."
2016		Holy Family Villa	Bethlehem	PA	resident	This is a retirement home for priests.

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (Kenedy & Sons, 1976-2015).

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Mraz's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with the allegations against him, as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegations we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on October 28, 2016.