NEW YORK
The American Conservative
By ROD DREHER • December 12, 2015
The parishioners at St. Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in the Bronx have had it with their pastor, Fr. Peter Miqueli, who allegedly brought habits of gross misconduct from his previous parish on Roosevelt Island into St. Frances. The Bronx parishioners, along with some of Miqueli’s former flock on Roosevelt Island, have filed a $1 million lawsuit in an effort to get him ousted and defrocked. …
Here’s what I don’t get: if you are the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, and you are credibly told that one of your priests is in an extremely kinky relationship with a gay prostitute, don’t you call that priest into your office the very next day and give him the third degree? Or at least the next day? Or the day after that?
Leaving aside the financial mismanagement charges, there are three possibilities here:
1) the Archdiocese investigated these allegations of grotesque sexual misconduct and found them groundless;
2) the Archdiocese investigated, found these allegations true, but chose not to act on them; or
3) the Archdiocese never investigated the allegations
If these salacious allegations against Fr. Miqueli are false, the Archdiocese should say so unambiguously, and clear his name.
If the Archdiocese did not take the allegations seriously, it owes the people of the Archdiocese an explanation as to why not, especially in an era of so-called zero tolerance in the Church.
If the Archdiocese substantiated these allegations against Fr. Miqueli, but left him in parish ministry, it owes the people of the Archdiocese an explanation.
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