KCK archdiocese: We never received this 2023 letter about Bishop Miege president | Opinion
This week, Parker Valdez renewed her November 2023 complaint about Phil Baniewicz, president of Bishop Miege High School, to the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Baniewicz had already been suspended, as of last week, while the archdiocese investigates “his ability to oversee a safe environment.” This time, her report was taken seriously.
Her story is quite similar to that of her fellow former Maur Hill-Mount Academy student Taylor Kelsey. The two don’t know one another, but Kelsey’s May 27 complaint led to an investigation that began the next day. Valdez told me her story more than a year ago, though Kelsey was unaware of that.
Baniewicz was president at Maur Hill until 2023. Neither woman accused Baniewicz of touching her, but of highly emotional, inappropriate and traumatic one-on-one closed-door meetings about sex.
After Kelsey complained to the archdiocese, things went quickly: An investigation started the next day. New Archbishop Shawn McKnight, who was installed on May 27, by complete coincidence the same Kelsey sent emails to a number of church and school officials, announced that Baniewicz had been suspended as of June 5.
For Valdez, on the other hand, things went nowhere. Below is the November 2023 letter that she sent directly to Archbishop Naumann, which was never acknowledged. Nor was it ever returned to sender.
Even if the letter was somehow lost by the U.S. Postal Service, the diocese had to have known her story, because in April of 2024, she made her concerns public in my long piece about Baniewicz in The Star, asking how fully vetted he had been. But again, she heard nothing from the diocese, which continued to strongly support him.
On Monday, Valdez started over. She again contacted the archdiocese to tell her story, and said, too, that it wasn’t the first time she was coming forward.
On Tuesday, she told me, the diocese called to schedule a meeting. “They seemed genuinely apologetic” that no one had responded before, she said, and wanted to make sure she was getting the care she needed.
“Yes, this left scars, but I’m happy with my provider. The focus now should be, let’s get him away from other kids.”
Both she and the archdiocese, she said, have now also filed reports with the Kansas Department of Children and Families.
I forwarded the letter we are publishing today to the archdiocese and asked if it wanted to weigh in, either to the letter itself or to lack of response to her. The answer I got back was that there was no record that the letter from Valdez had ever been received:
“The administrative staff at the Archdiocese has a system of documenting and processing correspondence received by the archbishop. There is no record that we received this letter. The Archdiocese recognizes the courage it takes for someone to come forward and acknowledges our responsibility to respond with care and compassion.”
Here is Valdez’s letter:
Archbishop Naumann,
I am writing to you with serious concerns regarding the recent appointment of Mr. Phil Baniewicz to a leadership position at Bishop Miege High School. I speak not only as a member of the Catholic community and a concerned citizen, but as someone who had direct, deeply troubling experiences with Mr. Baniewicz during my time at Maur Hill-Mount Academy.
I want to share one specific encounter that continues to weigh heavily on me, even years later. It was my seventeenth birthday. I was in history class when Mr. Baniewicz unexpectedly knocked on the classroom door and asked me to grab my things and come with him. I remember feeling momentarily hopeful, thinking perhaps my parents had arranged a birthday surprise or lunch. Instead, he brought me to his office and began what he called a “dad talk.”
He asked about my adjustment to the school and then shifted into a line of questioning about who I had been spending time with. He referenced a rumor he had heard that I was dating a classmate and began probing into the details of that relationship. He then bizarrely brought up the older brother of the boy I was seeing (someone I had never interacted with) and used that as a segue into a conversation about “purity,” “modesty,” and how I, as a “beautiful young woman. with certain desirable features,” needed to be cautious not to “lead my brothers in Christ into temptation.”
As confused and visibly upset as I was, what followed was nothing short of traumatizing. Mr. Baniewicz told me that it was his responsibility, not only as an administrator but as a “dad figure” to me (a role I neither needed nor welcomed), to inform me that “everyone” thought I was a “loose, party-girl whore.” Those were his exact words. I asked through tears what I had done to deserve that label. His only answers were vague and disturbing references to my physical appearance and how it could provoke “sinful desires” in my male classmates. At no point did he point to anything I had actually done, aside from having gone on three dates with one classmate, all of which were chaperoned by a parent.
This encounter, which took place in private, behind a closed door, on my birthday, was humiliating, confusing, and emotionally scarring. And it was not an isolated incident. Throughout my time at Maur Hill, I experienced and heard of other similarly inappropriate and VIRTUS-violating interactions between Mr. Baniewicz and students, especially young women. Many of my peers and even a few staff members shared their own stories when I opened up about mine. These patterns speak to a larger, systemic failure in his leadership, one that left myself and many other students feeling unsafe, scrutinized, and spiritually manipulated.
Even setting aside my personal experience, I find it shocking and alarming that Mr. Baniewicz was selected to lead another Catholic high school community in light of the serious allegations that have followed him from Arizona. Whether or not one chooses to believe that he knowingly enabled or surrounded himself with convicted sex offenders, the fact remains that he did just that. One of those offenders, whom he referred to as his “spiritual father,” is the man he named. his son after.
At best, this shows staggeringly poor judgment. At worst, it indicates a tolerance, if not complicity, for harmful environments. Either way, these are not the characteristics of someone who should be in charge of the moral, spiritual, and personal development of teenagers.
I also feel compelled to address the letter Mr. Baniewicz sent to the Bishop Miege community, in which he stated that he was “exonerated” and “cleared” of the allegations made in Arizona, which he called a “complete lie.” This is not true. He and his co-defendants settled out of court for $100,000. A monetary settlement paid to a victim (essentially legal hush money) does not constitute a legal finding of innocence; it is NOT an acquittal. If Mr. Baniewicz was indeed falsely accused, why did he not fight the allegations in court and obtain a formal judgment. clearing his name?
As someone who has had direct and troubling experiences with Mr. Baniewicz, I urge you to consider the full weight of what his presence signals to the community, especially to current and future students who may find themselves in similarly inappropriate or emotionally manipulative situations. Not to mention, those in the community who have personally experienced the detriment of sexual abuse by a teacher, church official, clergy member, or other trusted adult.
Every day that passes without intervention gives Mr. Baniewicz more time to influence and potentially harm students in the same ways many of us experienced. I genuinely fear how many young people he may have already targeted or affected in just the past few months at Miege.
The Archdiocese has a sacred obligation to protect not just the physical, but also the emotional and spiritual well-being of its youth. That responsibility extends beyond avoiding only those with convictions or substantiated allegations. It includes taking seriously credible, consistent accounts of inappropriate conduct, patterns of concerning behavior, and the voices of those affected.
I hope you will reevaluate this appointment, and I am more than willing to speak further or provide additional details if that would be helpful.
Respectfully,
Parker Valdez (Delfelder)
Former Student, Maur Hill-Mount Academy, Class of 2018
