{"id":3754,"date":"2009-12-07T12:53:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T12:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/giuliani-priest-friend-cleared-of-abuse-charge.html"},"modified":"2009-12-07T12:53:35","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T12:53:35","slug":"giuliani-priest-friend-cleared-of-abuse-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/giuliani-priest-friend-cleared-of-abuse-charge.html","title":{"rendered":"Giuliani priest friend cleared of abuse charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This bit of news<\/a> slipped under the wire over the weekend, but it’s worth noting: <\/p>\n

\nA Long Island priest with close ties to Rudy Giuliani has been cleared of allegations he molested a teenager in 1975, church officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n

Msgr. Alan Placa was the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s pointman on sexual abuse until 2002, when he was hit with sex accusations.<\/p>\n

Stripped of his priestly duties while church authorities investigated, he was found not guilty after a canonical trial.<\/p>\n

Throughout the probe, Giuliani stood by his life-long friend, even putting him on the payroll of his firm.<\/p>\n

Placa was best man at Giuliani’s first wedding and the priest at his second, and he officiated at the ex-mayor’s mother’s funeral.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Giuliani said he had no comment. “He’s not going to weigh in,” she said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meantime, however, a victims group is not pleased:<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n“While not surprising, it’s still heart-breaking to see that a victim deemed credible by virtually everyone else — prosecutors, grand jurors, journalists, survivors, relatives and lay Catholics — is deemed not credible by a couple of Vatican bureaucrats thousands of miles away,” said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.<\/p>\n

Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountablity.org, a group that tracks sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests, called the decision a “slap in the face to survivors and all Catholics who want to believe the Church can change its ways.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This bit of news slipped under the wire over the weekend, but it’s worth noting: A Long Island priest with close ties to Rudy Giuliani has been cleared of allegations he molested a teenager in 1975, church officials said Saturday. Msgr. Alan Placa was the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s pointman on sexual abuse until 2002,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nGiuliani priest friend cleared of abuse charge - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/12\/giuliani-priest-friend-cleared-of-abuse-charge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giuliani priest friend cleared of abuse charge - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This bit of news slipped under the wire over the weekend, but it’s worth noting: A Long Island priest with close ties to Rudy Giuliani has been cleared of allegations he molested a teenager in 1975, church officials said Saturday. 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