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  Abusive Priest Worked in Elmira

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
June 28, 2002

A former New Jersey teacher who pleaded guilty 15 years ago to sexually abusing a teen boy worked until recently as a Catholic priest in the Elmira area.

"I have to say that if we knew he was here, and his background, the bishop would not have permitted" the Rev. Timothy J. Brennan to function as a priest, said Michael Tedesco, a spokesman for Rochester Bishop Matthew Clark.

Brennan, a Benedictine who then was 46, pleaded guilty in 1987 to aggravated sexual contact with a 15-year-old student and served a yearlong probation. He was removed from his priestly duties in March by his supervisors at St. Mary Abbey in Morris Township, N.J.

Abbot Thomas Confroy said in a statement Thursday that Brennan has always been under strict supervision.

Brennan had been living at Mount Saviour, outside Elmira, for three years. Monastery officials said he celebrated Mass at local churches and nursing homes but had no contact with children.

 
 

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