Statement regarding Court Appearance by Former Priest Neal Kalina

The individual whose preliminary exam began today, August 27, in 41-A District Court in Shelby Township, Neil Kalina, was ordained in 1981 for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), a religious order that operates separately from the Archdiocese of Detroit. Close to 30 religious orders currently serve in the Detroit archdiocese – the PIMEs, the Jesuits, the Capuchins, etc. – ministering in schools, institutions and organizations, and, in some cases, are assigned to parish ministry. Kalina was assisting at at parishes – not as a pastor – in Shelby Township and Sterling Heights in the mid-1980s. He left the Detroit archdiocese in 1986; he abandoned active ministry in 1993.

An allegation of child abuse against him was brought to the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2017. Per our agreement with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, we turned over the complaint to the Shelby Township Police Department. In addition, we turned over the complaint to the PIME religious order. The allegation was included in the material collected by the Attorney General’s Office in the fall of 2018.

Catholic priests are broadly grouped into two categories: diocesan priests and religious order priests. A diocesan priest is someone ordained for a specific arch/diocese to exercise ministry within the geographic boundaries of that arch/diocese. A religious order priest, in contrast, is ordained for his religious order to minister wherever the religious order operates.

Neil Kalina is not – and was not – an archdiocesan priest. He would accurately be described as a former religious order priest who briefly served in the Detroit archdiocese.