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Due to the numerous sexual abuse pay outs across the America, secret personnel data files of abusive priests have been released. One prominent discovery from these papers happens to be the level to which bishops shifted priests from a parish in which they had been charged with sexual abuse to a different parish to go on inside the ministry.
Bishops were found to have shifted priests without providing a basis that explain why. Priests were said to be on sick leave or suffering from fatigue then discreetly removed to another location. Priests charged with sexual abuse were protected against fallout and continued collecting housing and living expenses. Even when a priest’s abuse became known to the community, he'd be shifted to a parish where no one knew of his abusive track record.
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Bishops as well as other high level leaders within the diocese would hold the information of a transferred priest’s actions to themselves, containing them in secret records inside the diocese. Even priests who confessed to abusing young people were returned to ministry often to abuse young children in the new area.
One example identified through the Pennsylvania grand jury analysis was Father Ernest Paone of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In the first nine years of his ministry, Father Paone was transferred to 5 different parishes. In 1962, a pastor had to get involved to prevent Father Paone from being arrested for molestation, and the diocese’s response ended up being to shift him to a parish in a new city. Father Paone continued to be in the ministry with the help of the church until his resignation in 2003.
Church Sex Abuse Lawyer Missouri
Also in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Father George Zirwas was designated to eight various parishes from 1979-1995 when he was put on a leave of absence. Diocese records uncovered that Father Zirwas started receiving allegations of child abuse towards him in 1987 that continued until his leave of absence. In the Diocese of Scranton, Father Robert N. Caparelli was transmitted to half a dozen different parishes after his ordination in 1964 until he was absolved of obligations in 1991. Less than four years after beginning his ministry, the bishop was approached by a cop informing him of Father Caparelli’s misconduct with 2 altar boys.
Church Sexual Abuse Lawyers Missouri
Father Caparelli was moved to another parish and claims of child abuse continued to follow him to subsequent parishes. Father Joseph M. Pease, from the Diocese of Harrisburg, was another case in point described in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. Father Pease was transmitted to several different parishes in his 40 years of ministry in the diocese even though facing a number of claims of sexual abuse.
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