PENNSYLVANIA
WTAE
[with video]
PITTSBURGH —A priest accused of traveling to Honduras to engage in sex with children while promoting missionary work with the poor there has been arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Documents reveal the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and law enforcement agencies first learned of the allegations five years ago.
Church officials, the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI were all declining to comment Friday.
The Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, spent two decades working with orphaned children in Central America. Homeland Security investigators say some of those same children were his victims.
“We see this very, very often with child-molesting Catholic clerics. They gravitate toward communities or countries where kids are especially vulnerable,” said David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
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