MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat
FOR EIGHT YEARS, a credibly accused serial predator priest lived quietly across the river while two bishops warned no one of his presence. Newly-released church records show that from 1995-2002, Fr. J. Vincent Fitzgerald lived at St. Henry’s Oblate Residence in Belleville. (In 2006, an admitted predator priest, Fr. Real Bourque, was found at the same facility.) Fr. Fitzgerald, who was sued for reportedly assaulting two Native American kids on a South Dakota reservation, also worked at in the Springfield, MO and Springfield, IL dioceses.
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