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  Springfield Diocese Priest Defrocked

WPRI
June 8, 2006

http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5006881&nav=F2DO

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. A Roman Catholic priest from the Springfield Diocese suspected of sexual abuse has been defrocked.

Diocese officials say Richard Meehan was permanently dismissed from the priesthood on April 28th by Pope Benedict.

Church officials aren't providing details of who Meehan allegedly molested or how many people filed complaints. The diocese told him he could no longer work as a priest in 1994, and referred his case to the Vatican in 2002.

Since he was suspended from his priestly duties, Meehan has been receiving a monthly stipend of about 12-hundred dollars from the diocese. Those payments will now stop.

Meehan is the second priest from the Springfield Diocese to be defrocked.

Richard Lavigne was convicted of child abuse and suspected -- but never charged -- with murdering altar boy Danny Croteau (CROW' toe) more than 30 years ago.

(Help, Bill Erickson, WHYN)

 
 

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