CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
for immediate release: Friday, Nov. 20, 2015
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A prosecutor claims she’s been told that a Hartford priest will ‘never be a priest again.’ We doubt that’s true.
Earlier this week Fr. Paul A. Gotta was convicted in a plea bargain of second-degree breach of peace. Next month, he faces firearms charges. He’s accused of molesting a child.
Now is no time for complacency. We’ve seen far too many other priests – both credibly accused of crimes and proven guilty of crimes – who’ve been kept in or returned to parishes. (Remember: the Catholic church continues to experience a severe shortage of priests and seminarians. The pressure to keep them in the job, no matter how egregious their wrongdoing may be, is tremendous.)
[Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]
We repeat what we said yesterday: Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair should take Fr. Gotta’s passport so he can’t flee the country (as Fr. Augusto Cortez of the Rockville Centre diocese and dozens of other predator priests have done).
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