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…