Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee removes prominent Pensacola priest

By Melissa Nelson Gabriel
Pensacola News Journal
August 27, 2018

https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2018/08/27/priest-diocese-pensacola-tallahassee-removes-pensacola-priest-st-paul/1111573002/

Monsignor James Flaherty leads nearly one hundred friends and teachers of 9-year-old Dericka Lindsay, a student at St. John the Evangelist School, in prayer during a memorial for her at Resthaven Gardens Cemetery in Pensacola on Thursday, November 16, 2017.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Monday that it has removed a well-known Pensacola priest from his office. 

Sharmane Adams, spokeswoman for the diocese, said Bishop William Albert Wack had asked Monsignor James Flaherty to "step away from his duties" as the diocese's judicial vicar, director of office of the tribunal, director of the lay formation institute and director of priestly formation.

Adams said Flaherty was removed within two days after a fellow priest and two parishioners approached the bishop with "non-specific concerns." 

"The issues were not mandatory to report because they were not involving sexual abuse of a minor," she said. 

Adams said she could not say if Flaherty's dismissal involved inappropriate sexual behavior with adults. Because the issue was a personnel matter, Adams said she could not comment on the specific nature of the men's concerns. 

While the bishop acted to remove Flaherty from his current post within two days of receiving multiple complaints, according to Adams, parishioners said Flaherty had been removed from St. Paul's earlier this year.

In May of 2017, the diocese announced Flaherty had been transferred from serving as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Pensacola to St. Paul as parish administrator.

Flaherty earlier had served at Holy Spirit Parish on Gulf Beach Highway, but was reassigned in 2012. 

Adams said Flaherty would no longer be assigned to any parish but would be allowed to say Mass in his home. 

"There is no intention to remove him from being a priest," she said. 

Flaherty did not return phone messages left at several numbers associated with him.

In a 2010 Pensacola News Journal column about challenges facing the Catholic Church because of the sexual abuse scandal, Flaherty said the sexual abuse of minors was a societal problem. 

Flaherty said European members of the church had pointed to the scandal as an American problem.

"They have skeletons in their closet too," he said. "If you look at some of the statistics, there are higher numbers of abuse in other churches and society as a whole than in the Catholic Church," he said. 

Flaherty's removal comes two weeks after the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee removed a priest of two Big Bend churches after he was accused of inappropriate contact with an underage girl in 2004 when he was serving at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Tallahassee.

The diocese announced that it received an accusation against Father Edward Jones, conducted an investigation and found the allegation credible. As a result, the diocese removed Jones as pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Crawfordville and Sacred Heart Parish in Lanark, where he had been working since 2010.