Word: priests
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...horror stories exploding onto front pages are modifying church behavior, whether its leaders like it or not. Under duress, some bishops have scrambled to announce "zero tolerance" toward any priest, past or present, against whom allegations have been made. Up to a dozen Los Angeles priests have been quietly dismissed in recent weeks. Southern California's Orange County diocese removed the Rev. Michael Pecharich from his church in early March as soon as it substantiated a single case of abuse, which was decades old. And when Kathryn Barrett-Gaines and her sister, now in their 30s, contacted the archdiocese...
...scapegoat, rushing to announce his imminent arrest, and then claimed the church bore no responsibility under First Amendment protections. Even though county investigators concluded two years ago that they had no basis to charge him, Malicki is still on a leave of absence. "The archdiocese has left this priest twisting in the wind, trying to wash their hands of this," says his attorney, Ellis Rubin. "Has this gone too far?" wonders Dillard's predecessor at St. Augustine's. "I think every priest now worries every day he may be accused of something...
...abuse experts like Richard Sipe, who says, "The church is not going to get out of this without opening fully a dialogue and going beneath the secret system of handling things." Even victims say it, over and over. Jim Griley, 39, who says he was abused by California priest Michael Pecharich 30 years ago, is on a mission to break the church of its secrecy. "This is going to bring a cleansing to the church," he says. "They need to turn these stones over. They need to get this out in the open...
...convicted child molester, ex-con and former priest, Father X, who asks that his name not be revealed, was arrested in the 1990s and charged with molesting children over a seven-year period. During his 30-year career, he was a sought-after counselor and confidant, and for a number of years he worked closely with young people in his California diocese. At the time of his arrest, prosecutors charged him with 17 counts of child sexual abuse. Most of those counts were dropped because the statute of limitations had run out, but Father X, who claims he had undergone...
...find myself touching and fondling genitals. The boys were junior high age, basically. Their ages were 11 or 12, for the most part, maybe 13. But any kid who showed affection or showed that he liked me was probably vulnerable. And, of course, that happens very naturally with a priest and especially with kids at that...