MASSACHUSETTS
Cape Cod Times

By AMY ANTHONY
aanthony@capecodonline.com
April 10, 2014

The state Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Falmouth priest against two other priests, agreeing the suit was filed beyond the statute of limitations.

In November 2010, the Rev. John P. Harrington, formerly a priest at St. Patrick’s Church on Main Street in Falmouth, filed suit in Norfolk Superior Court against the Rev. John H. Perry – the former pastor of St. Patrick’s – and the Rev. William M. Costello, the former pastor of St. Anthony’s Parish in East Falmouth.

The suit stems from an incident beginning in January 2005, when Costello told Perry that a parishioner of St. Patrick’s had accused Harrington of stalking her minor son, according to the court decision. In response, Perry told the two directors of religious education at St. Patrick’s…