So I found the old article I was looking for thanks to a tip from a commenter. Unfortunately, the Stevens Point Journal does not archive photos, but the original article had a picture of Fr. O'Hara with a black eye
Jun 3, 2003Ex-wrestler priest picks up black eye while halting burglary at St. Peter Church
By TRUDY STEWART and KATE GARSOMBKE Journal staff
A double-chicken-wing hold applied by a former college wrestler who is now a parish priest foiled a burglary on Saturday night in Stevens Point.
Four area teen-age boys were arrested on charges related to the burglary at St. Peter Catholic Church, 808 Fourth Ave., said Capt. Jim Dowling of the Stevens Point Police Department.
See AlsoDevon Thompson on LinkedIn: RBCx at INNOVATEwest 2024Full July 2024 Marvel Comics solicitations: New X-Men era begins • AIPTThe Rev. Joseph O'Hara surprised the teens at about 9 p.m. as they tried to pry open a safe in St. Peter's sacristy.
"I just bellowed,
`What are you doing in my church?' " said O'Hara, 39, who is chaplain at Pacelli High School and St. Peter Middle School. "Three of them took off right away, and one I was able to catch."Using the wrestling skills he learned at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, O'Hara grappled the 14-year-old town of Linwood boy to the floor and held him there. When the boy promised to behave, O'Hara let him up.
"That's when I noticed he took out a knife," O'Hara said. "I don't know what he was thinking about doing. I just stared at the knife."
The boy voluntarily put down the 4-inch folding knife. But as O'Hara was phoning the police, the boy hit him in the head and ribs, a report said. O'Hara was not seriously injured, Dowling said.
O'Hara subdued the boy again, this time bringing the double chicken-wing into play. "I had him down and let him up two or three times before I was able to make the call to the police," O'Hara said.
The 14-year-old Linwood boy pinned by O'Hara faces an armed burglary charge and a battery charge for striking the priest. Officers found two of the boys about an hour later downtown and the other boy at 11:30 p.m. A 15-year-old town of Stockton boy and two 13-year-old Stevens Point boys face charges of armed burglary as parties to the crime.
The Stevens Point boys also may be charged with attempted burglary for attempts earlier Saturday night to break into St. Stephen Catholic Church,1401 Clark St., and the Episcopal Church of the Intercession, 1417 Church St., Dowling said. Because the boys are under 18, their cases have been forwarded to Portage County Health and Human Services Department. Court dates have not been set.
The boys entered St. Peter Church through the unlocked back door and found the safe, Dowling said. Three of them played with a Hacky Sack outside church while another looked for a tool to open the safe. When the boy returned with a hammer, they went back into the church.
The Stevens Point boys told police they also were responsible for a break-in last week at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1300 Main St., Dowling said. A representative of the church reported May 27 that someone broke a window and took about $91 from a desk drawer in an office.
The boys said on May 25 they also had vandalized two vehicles on Fifth Avenue and stole a $1,000 bicycle, Dowling said. As a result, they face theft charges and two counts of vandalism, he said.
Youths stealing from churches are a sign of problems in the community, O'Hara said.
"It's bad when they steal anything, at home or in a store," O'Hara said. "But you would think there would be greater regard for things that are sacred."
His classes on Monday at Pacelli and St. Peter started with prayers for the boys who broke into the area churches, O'Hara said.
"Prayer is one thing, but we have to have a whole community to help these kids," he said. "You need a strong message to them that they have done something seriously wrong, but given in a way that tells they can crawl out of this mess."I'm concerned for these kids as well as kids in similar situations."
Stevens Point Journal archives
Fr. O'Hara is now discerning at Clear Creek Abbey, a traditional Benedictine in Oklahoma.
LOL, I'm not even going to try to tell the rest of the story, but it involved a "dead" cat that came back to life.
