A letter sent to Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane purports to be written by Monsignor Philip Saylor recanting his testimony to the grand jury.

“I dreamt that God accused me of giving you false information on all the priests of the diocese of Altoona Johnstown … Also, the things against Bishop Adamec are not true,” the letter stated.

The letter was sent Feb. 17, in the days before Kane would release the statewide grand jury report bringing to light sexual misconduct of 50 priests and church officials.

It’s not the first time a letter was sent to refute misconduct by priests that had been put in the spotlight.

In 2003, the “Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown, secretly formed by 26 clergy of this diocese to demand the rights and dignity of all priests” sent a letter to media outlets and parish priests and deacons demanding then-Bishop Joseph Adamec “cease and desist any and all harassment of homosexual clergy and instead work to protect the reputation and well-being of clergy of all sexual orientations.”

At the time a Catholic lay person, George Foster, was privately investigating claims of abuse by priests. Bishop Joseph Adamec met with him, but ignored him, he said.

So the victims pursued civil action with attorney Richard Serbin, though they didn’t want money, Foster said. They wanted the bad priests removed.

Foster, of Hollidaysburg, kept his investigative materials, and they were subpoenaed by Kane last year for the grand jury. She called Foster a hero in her press conference Tuesday.

Foster’s investigation started in 2002, when he had written an opinion piece in the Mirror after the scandal in the archdiocese of Boston and victims began calling him, he said.

Over the course of a few months, the billboard company manager collected information about a few priests from firsthand interviews with victims and public information from the Rev. Francis Luddy case and presented it to Adamec.

Also around that time, Foster and others, including Johnstown physician Brian Kopp, identified the nationwide revelation of pedophilia was not exactly pedophilia in most circumstances.

In 2002, he bought a full-page ad in the Mirror saying the issues of pedophilia were few compared to instances of priestly homosexual abuse of teenagers.

He sees that to be largely true of priest sex abuse in the diocese.

The letter from the “Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown” was sent to Foster in 2003, he confirmed.

Foster said an anonymous sender mailed it to his house. Although he couldn’t verify its sender, he said he could believe the federation was just who they said they were.

“I just saw it as an attempt by people who could get in trouble to get the bishop to protect them. It made me feel that these people have no shame. I already knew what kind of people we were dealing with. They would go to any length to stop people from uncovering what was going on.”

Foster said he knows that saying abuse happened as a result of priests succumbing to homosexual urges instead of pedophilia is not popular in today’s world.

But the grand jury report describes many of the acts of priests as homosexual.

The report states the Rev. David Arsenault “told a victim he was gay and that 80 percent of Catholic priests are gay.”

And Foster noted the recent case of Brother Stephen Baker, who died in 2013. That case drew in the Cambria County district attorney and Kane later to investigate the dioceses as a whole.

“Baker – all of his victims were teenagers. That’s not pedophilia. It’s a homosexual priest molesting teenagers,” Foster said.

The grand jury report states that Bishop Joseph Adamec met with the Rev. Thomas Caroll in 1988 regarding sex abuse allegations.

“Carroll admitted to having a ‘homosexual affair’ with a 17-year-old boy,” the report states.

Adamec also became aware of rumors that Carroll was an “active homosexual … and has been seen at places frequented by gays.”

The report also states one priest who testified about Carroll said “the ‘priest network,’ defined as gossiping priests, spoke of his proclivity for sex with minors.”

The Rev. Elwood Figurelle, who died in 2008, and was transferred to another parish after being arrested for indecent exposure, admitted to being “fascinated with male genitalia.”

The Rev. Martin McCamley, who the report states molested a 13-year-old and a 16-year old, also evidently had homosexual encounters.

“McCamley’s proclivity to engage in impermissible sexual conduct was an open joke amongst diocesan officials following a sexual encounter,” the report states.

The 2003 letter, still available online, stated that the “Priests Federation of Altoona-Johnstown demanded the rights and dignity of all priests be respected and protected by our bishop.”

In 2003, the time of the Catholic priest scandal in Boston, priests were running for cover, Foster said. They were worried they would get thrown out of their roles – lose their retirement, houses – security promised to them by their diocese for faithful service.

The letter demanded the bishop “cease and desist his public defense of any and all lawsuits concerning alleged priestly misconduct and instead settle these cases out of court so as to protect the reputation and well-being of those priests so named and others that may be revealed in the course of any trial.”

The letter demanded an end to harassment of homosexual priests.

“We demand that our bishop cease and desist any and all harassment of homosexual clergy and instead work to protect the reputation and well being of clergy of all sexual orientations.”

The letter also demanded that Adamec turn the attention of his legal representation toward “stopping the hateful and homophobic actions of George Foster … and all who are set upon destroying the reputations of homosexual priests and this diocese.”

In the statewide-grand jury documents, Foster is named as a private citizen, devout Catholic and novice private investigator.

He laughed at the third title.

“We are Catholics. This is our responsibility. I am a businessman, but I can’t separate myself from the church.”

“We are the church militants. The ground troops. We are supposed to speak up against evil. Even when it’s happening in our church.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.