MISSOURI
News Tribune
By News Tribune
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
An advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse held a press conference Monday to allege priests in the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City were involved in past sexual abuses and to announce additional alleged victims of Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell.
The timing of the press conference by The Come to the Stable/Stephen Spalding Foundation coincides with the 10th anniversary of the closing of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, after O’Connell admitted to having molested students while he worked there.
Before his resignation in 2004, O’Connell was transferred to Palm Beach, Fla., to help a church recover after another priest there admitted to having molested five boys.
Wegs said O’Connell’s transfer is part of the Jefferson City diocese culture of promoting those who hide sexual abuse.
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