PENNSYLVANIA
Montgomery Media
By Bradley Schlegel
bschlegel@journalregister.com
The decision to declare the Rev. Leonard Peterson suitable for ministry was made through the lens of protecting the children of parishioners.
That’s according to a member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Child and Youth Protection, who spoke Tuesday night to parishioners of the St. Maria Goretti Parish.
During an open forum on the standards of ministerial behavior, Leslie Gomez told the audience that the investigation into 37 priests accused of various abuse charges of children was not disclosed to protect the privacy of the priests and the alleged victims.
The process was not treated like a legal matter, according to Gomez, an investigator working on behalf of the archdiocese and a former child abuse prosecutor for the Philadelphia District Attorney.
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