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  Lawyer Wants Priest's Records
Defendant Indicted on Sex Abuse Charges Resigned in '04 from Syracuse Diocese

Post-Standard
September 24, 2008

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-15/122224652377611.xml&coll=1

A lawyer representing the family of three young children allegedly abused sexually by the Rev. John W. Broderick is seeking personnel records of the priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

"Everyone has passed him along," John Aretakis said Tuesday in a news conference across the street from the chancery of the Syracuse Diocese.

Aretakis is seeking records from the Syracuse Diocese; the Albany Diocese; the Society of St. Pius X, based in Platte City, Mo.; the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, based in Elmhurst, Pa.; the Dominican Sisters of Idaho, which runs a school in Massena; the Franciscan brothers; and the Rev. Timothy Pfeiffer, pastor of Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God Church, a St. Pius community in Syracuse.

Broderick was indicted last month on charges he sexually abused three brothers under age 11 in Montgomery County.

Broderick was arrested in February and was originally accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with four children ages 5 to 11.

The Post-Standard does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Broderick was ordained in the Syracuse Diocese in 1989 but has not ministered here since 2004, when he resigned from his position as pastor of St. Malachy Church in Sherburne. Since then, he has been on unpaid leave from the diocese. Early this year, he was suspended from ministry.

His leave did not result from an allegation of sexual misconduct, said Danielle Cummings, assistant chancellor and spokeswoman for the Syracuse Diocese.

It's unclear where Broderick has lived or ministered since 2004, although Aretakis said the priest has been involved with the organizations named in the lawsuit.

Officials from the Syracuse and Albany dioceses, the Society of St. Pius X and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter have said they received no accusations of sexual abuse by Broderick.

A representative of the Society of St. Pius X has said Broderick has been in contact with the organization, but has never been employed at any of its chapels or schools. He said Broderick did not seek to join the community.

The Society of St. Pius X was founded in 1969 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a French priest who disagreed with changes the Catholic Church made as part of Vatican II. The Roman Catholic Church considers St. Pius X Society to be in schism, or not in union with the pope.

The Rev. Eric Flood, district superior for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, confirmed that Broderick taught in 2000-01 at St. Gregory's Academy for Boys, a Catholic boarding school in northeastern Pennsylvania. Flood said Broderick never sought to join the fraternity.

Cummings said Aretakis did not seek information about Broderick before filing the lawsuit.

"The question of personnel records has to be reviewed by legal counsel," she said.

Renee K. Gadoua can be reached at rgadoua@syracuse.com or 470-2203.

 
 

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