PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Bill Zlatos
Monday, Aug. 18, 2014
An expired statute of limitations will keep the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office from pursuing an allegation of sexual abuse involving a priest and a minor, authorities said Monday.
The district attorney, through a spokesman, endorsed the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s handling of such cases, even though the diocese did not act on this allegation for nearly 11 years.
The diocese said it learned of the allegation against the Rev. John P. Carroll on Dec. 9, 2003, from the archdiocese in Boston. The allegation dates to when Carroll was parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth from 1962 to 1963. He was in the diocese until 1972.
Church officials in Boston informed the Pittsburgh diocese on Aug. 5 that it had begun steps to dismiss him from the priesthood.
“If we are talking about something that is alleged to have taken place in 1962, or in the 10 years after, until this individual was no longer associated with the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the statute of limitations would still prevent us from taking any action on the allegation,” said Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
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