PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog
Ralph Cipriano
Father Michael J. McCarthy like to sleep naked with teenage boys who stayed over his beach house at the Jersey Shore. He also ran a travel business on the side, planning gay cruises to places like Thailand.
Prosecutors on Tuesday used documents from the secret archive files to tell Father McCarthy’s story to the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington suggested that the church had turned a blind eye to Father McCarthy’s transgressions with teenage boys, as long as scandal could be avoided by transferring the priest to another parish. In September 1992, the cardinal promoted Father McCarthy to pastor of Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Norristown, despite a complaint of sex abuse.
It was the priest’s business venture that got him into trouble, the prosecutor said, especially after the cardinal found out that Father McCarthy was competing against a business owner who had just donated $25,000 to the archdiocese for Catholic Life 2000.
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