Archdiocese restricts ministry of Kansas priest once charged with abusing minor

Responding to a directive from the Vatican, the leader of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has placed restrictions on the ministry of a priest once charged with sexually abusing a minor.

Archbishop Shawn McKnight ordered that the Rev. Scott Kallal “is prohibited from conduct with minors that could be reasonably understood as grooming, favoritism, inappropriate physical contact, or conduct that is likely to create scandal among the faithful.”

Kallal also will not be assigned to parish ministry or be allowed to minister to minors or women, the archdiocese said in a statement issued online Monday in The Leaven, its official newspaper. The statement said Kallal has been assigned “to provide groundskeeping support.”

The groundskeeping responsibilities, the archdiocese told The Star, “will be limited to general landscaping and maintenance at designated non-parish, non-school properties with access restrictions consistent with the conditions imposed.”

McKnight appointed a delegate to support Kallal and ensure he abides by the restrictions, Monday’s statement said. Kallal will live in a residence approved by the archbishop, the statement said, and “all of these restrictions will remain in force until they are modified or revoked.”

McKnight ordered the restrictions after the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), which handles certain disciplinary actions involving clergy, issued a penal precept for Kallal. A penal precept is “a formal, binding order under Church law that establishes specific requirements or prohibitions and applies a penalty for noncompliance,” the archdiocese said.

Kallal was arrested in July 2017 and charged with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a minor. At the time, then-Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann temporarily removed Kallal from the exercise of public priestly ministry. A criminal trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial, and the case was later dismissed.

“Because the Church holds its ministers to a higher standard and due to the seriousness of the complaints against Father Kallal, Archbishop Naumann presented the matter to the DDF,” the archdiocese said in Monday’s statement. “While the DDF determined insufficient evidence of a crime, they did find it necessary to issue a penal precept, which was put into effect in October 2026.”

McKnight said he realized that the news “may bring renewed pain and difficult uncertainties to those affected.”

“I have imposed additional restrictions to protect the vulnerable and establish clear boundaries for Fr. Kallal’s ministry,” he said. “As the Chief Shepherd of this archdiocese, I am responsible for safeguarding those entrusted to our care, ensuring proper due process and helping our Church live out its calling as a sanctuary of mercy for all while upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency.”

Criminal case in Wyandotte County

Kallal, 45, was ordained in 2011 and had assignments at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Overland Park, according to the archdiocese.

In July 2017, the archdiocese announced that it had suspended Kallal after receiving allegations of inappropriate conduct involving two people. Because one of the “boundary violation” allegations involved a minor, the archdiocese said, it notified the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

The archdiocese said in the 2017 announcement that “Father Kallal denies any moral misconduct or malicious intent and has agreed to undergo evaluation and counseling.”

Shortly after that announcement, Kallal was charged in Wyandotte County with two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The charges stemmed from incidents allegedly occurring in 2015.

At Kallal’s preliminary hearing, a 13-year-old girl testified that when she was 10, Kallal twice tickled her breasts against her wishes. The first alleged incident was at a friend’s graduation party in Bonner Springs in spring 2015. The girl said she and other girls were outside playing soccer when Kallal tickled her inappropriately.

The second alleged incident took place a few months later at the parish hall gymnasium at St. Patrick’s Church, she said.

Case dismissed in 2021

The case went to trial in Wyandotte County District Court in 2019. The girl’s adoptive mother testified that she witnessed Kallal carrying her daughter in the gym in an inappropriate way. The woman testified that she had to order Kallal about three times to put her daughter down before he complied.

The woman, who described herself as a “cradle Catholic” raised to hold priests in high regard, said she was mortified and shell-shocked at what happened.

After the trial ended in a hung jury, a new trial was scheduled. But the district attorney dismissed the case in 2021, saying the decision was made following discussions with the alleged victim’s family.

“After lengthy consultation with the family, the District Attorney’s Office has decided it is not in the best interests of the victim to try the case a second time,” it said in an email to The Star.

When the case was dismissed, the archdiocese said Kallal had been on a leave of absence since the allegation was first received in 2017.

“He continues to be on leave, restricted from publicly exercising priestly ministry,” the archdiocese said in 2021. “With the criminal legal process concluded, the Archdiocese will resume its own process of evaluation, including a thorough review by the Independent Review Board of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. The board will then present Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann with a recommendation regarding Father Kallal’s suitability for priestly ministry.”

Civil matter settled

Kallal also was the subject of a civil matter in which Kallal and the archdiocese reached settlements with the girl’s family, according to Rebecca Randles, the family’s attorney.

Randles said the settlement amount with the archdiocese was confidential. The settlement agreement with Kallal, she said, required him never to be around children under age 18 in an unsupervised setting.

Randles said though the family sought justice for their daughter, they didn’t want to put her through the trauma of another trial.

“You’ve got a little girl who spent her entire high school years in trial against a priest that abused her,” she said. “She didn’t want to go through this ever again.”