A high-ranking priest in the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, has been removed from ministry and is under investigation following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a woman said to date back to 2009, when she was still a minor. However, these steps taken by the diocese were only revealed to the faithful in response to a U.K.-based newspaper making public the allegations.
On Aug. 2, Father Robert Sullivan, the diocese’s vicar general and pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Homewood, Alabama, announced to his congregation that he had been granted a personal leave of absence beginning Aug. 4.
The Guardian released a report
Details of the reasons behind the request only emerged Aug. 13, when The Guardian released a report in which 33-year-old Heather Jones claimed that Father Sullivan had engaged in a sexual and financial relationship with her that began when she was 17.
According to the newspaper,…
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