UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Joseph V. Agostino was ordained for the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) in 1983. With the exception of a year in the late 1980s at Immaculate Conception parish in Baltimore, Agostino spent two and a half decades at St. John the Baptist in Brooklyn. He was named pastor in 2000, a role he held until 2009.
In 2003 a man came forward to allege that he had been sexually abused by Agostino. The Vincentians and the diocese investigated, both determining that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the man’s claims. Agostino remained in ministry. In April 2009 the same man contacted the diocese, this time providing more detailed information about the alleged abuse, including that it occurred when he was a minor. Agostino was suspended pending the outcome of a new investigation. In September 2009 he was transferred to the Vincentians’ Eastern Province headquarters where, according to a bio on his order’s website in December 2017, “Fr. Joe has been assigned to various projects by the Superior General of the Congregation.”
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