ITALY
The Daily Star (Lebanon)
Agence France Presse
ROME: The archbishop of Milan has suspended a 46-year-old priest charged with paying a teenage boy for sex, a statement said Saturday.
Cardinal Angelo Scola appealed to parishioners for “unity” as he announced he was suspending Father Alberto Paolo Lesmo from his duties as parish priest in the Milan neighborhood of Muggiano.
“Cardinal Scola and his colleagues express their distress and their pain, and pray for the victim, those close to him and for Father Lesmo,” it said.
It said it had only recently learnt that the priest was the subject of a probe launched in 2013 as he had hidden it from his superiors.
The alleged abuse occurred between 2009 and 2011. The alleged victim, a cocaine addict, was a teen at the time and prostituted himself to fund his habit.
The archdiocese has opened its own investigation.
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