Long-haul trucker's church allegedly has anti-Semitic ties

COEUR d'ALENE — The Southern Poverty Law Center said the Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls is part of a breakaway and anti-Semitic sect of Catholic church called the Society of Saint Pius X.

The Immaculate Conception Church, at 614 E. Fifth Ave., was where alleged child rapist Kevin G. Sloniker served as a youth camp counselor. Sloniker, 30, of Coeur d'Alene, is a long-haul truck driver, and some of the alleged abuse took place when boys traveled with him.

Court documents said Sloniker met and befriended some boys through the youth camps.

Bill Morlin, a renowned investigative reporter based in Spokane, wrote in a blog post on the Southern Poverty Law Center's website on Oct. 30 that said Sloniker was "affiliated with a hard-core, anti-Semitic church."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry. One of its founders, Morris Dees, successfully battled the Aryan Nations.

The Society of Saint Pius X, or SSPX, "was formed in a 1970 breakaway from the Roman Catholic Church over reforms instituted when the Second Vatican Council condemned 'all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews,'" Morlin wrote. "SSPX leaders contend the reforms were the result of a 'Masonic plot backed by the Jews.'"

In two cases filed in 1st District Court in Kootenai County, Sloniker is charged with a total of four counts of lewd conduct with children under 16 and one count of rape. All are felonies.

More charges will be filed this week. He is being held in Kootenai County jail. He has preliminary hearings scheduled for Thursday and Nov. 10 in those two cases.

Louis Tofari, spokesman for the SSPX, declined to comment about Sloniker.

But he did respond to the Southern Poverty Law Center's blog post alleging anti-Semitism.

“It’s completely groundless,” Tofari said Monday.

It's not the first time SSPX has been accused of anti-Semitism, he said.

The SSPX “completely rejects the false claim that it teaches or practices anti-Semitism, which is a racial hatred of the Jewish people because of their ethnicity, culture or religious beliefs,” according to the organization's website.

The SSPX also said accusations of anti-Semitism are “falsely and unjustly levied against those who disagree with Jewish beliefs,” according to the website.

Tofari declined to make any comment about Sloniker.

The Associated Press reported that Sloniker was arrested Sept. 14 in Menomonie, Wis., and was extradited to Idaho.

In an Oct. 9 interview with police, Sloniker allegedly admitted to fondling nine boys, having oral sex with some of them and raping one over the past 10 years, according to court documents. The Associated Press story also said he wanted help for his addiction to touching young boys.

Sloniker attended St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minn., but was removed from the seminary program in 2005, the story said. Officials deemed him mentally unstable after he tried to circumcise himself.