Staten Island- www.silive.com- A Franciscan priest serving at a friary in Staten Island’s Todt Hill section was indicted in Texas today of using his position as clergy to force a female relative to perform a sex act on him last year — inside a church rectory where he was temporarily assigned, police said.

Rev. Stephen Valenta, 85, a Franciscan priest for over 57 years who currently resides at the St. Francis Center for Spirituality on Todt Hill, was indicted by a Milam County, Texas, grand jury in the assault that allegedly occurred in May at a Rockdale church where he was filling in for an absence.

“She was compelled to perform the act by Father Valenta,” said Rockdale police Lt. J.D. Newlin, who investigated the case. “Basically she felt she had to do what he told her to do because of his position [with the church].”

Father Valenta has not yet been taken into custody, but the Milam County Sheriff’s Office is expected to send an arrest warrant to authorities here who will apprehend and extradite the priest to Texas. The grand jury indicted Father Valenta on one count each of sexual assault and prohibited sexual conduct, a charge formerly known as incest. The age of the victim was not released, but Newlin said she is an adult.

Father Valenta did not immediately return a telephone call. The St. Francis Center had no comment, but confirmed that Father Valenta is still a priest there.

According to Father Valenta’s online bio, he was ordained in 1951 in Albany, in 1966 became chaplain at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and in the 70s founded the Mount St. Francis Hermitage in upstate Maine, N.Y. It is unclear how long he has been a priest here.

Newlin said the victim, who lives in Milam County, said the abuse happened in the rectory of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Rockdale last May, during two weeks that Father Valenta was assigned there to cover for a priest who was attending some training. The sex act occurred in the rectory of the church, where Father Valenta was living, he said, and there are not believed to be any other victims.

Valenta also runs Heart to Heart Ministries, and has produced more than 40 videos and 60 audio programs for worldwide distribution.