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  Sacramento Diocese Rapped

By Jennifer Garza
Sacramento Bee
January 30, 2008

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/672772.html

SACRAMENTO – A victims rights group has criticized the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento for waiting six months to disclose that a priest had been accused of sexual molestation.

Leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said Tuesday that church officials were "extraordinarily reckless to keep a child-abuse allegation secret for that long."

David Clohessy, national director of the victims support group, called the delay "an egregious violation of the bishops' promise to openly and promptly suspend priests credibly accused."

Church officials announced Monday that the Rev. Francisco Hernandez-Tover, 59, was removed from ministry this week after investigation of a complaint that he had molested a teenage boy in the 1980s at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Colusa.

Church officials said it took that long to determine the allegation was credible.

"The (victim) was reluctant to come forward and concerned about his privacy," said Kevin Eckery, diocesan spokesman.

The priest, who is in declining health, has not lived at a church parish for nearly a year.

 
 

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