WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com
WORCESTER — A New Mexico man who says he was raped about 25 years ago by the Rev. David A. Holley is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in federal court — charging that local church authorities knew the diocesan priest was a pedophile, but nonetheless allowed him to practice his ministry in other parts of the country.
Officials said that Rev. Holley left a long trail of molestations at churches from Central Massachusetts to the Southwest before being sentenced in 1993 to up to 275 years in prison for abusing and sodomizing eight boys in Alamogordo, N.M.
He died behind prison walls in 2008 at the age of 80.
On Monday, lawyers for Eran J. McManemy, a 35-year-old resident of New Mexico, filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Mexico alleging that church authorities in Worcester and dioceses in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado knew that Rev. Holley was molesting children but covered up his behavior and kept moving the cleric from post to post.
Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the Worcester diocese, said he was unaware of the suit and could not comment.
Mr. McManemy said Rev. Holley was one of three priests who abused him while he served as an altar boy at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo.
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