WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post
By Kathleen Chapman
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 06, 2005
WEST PALM BEACH — An employee of the Diocese of Palm Beach said Thursday that Palm Beach County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez, a Catholic, should be denied communion for allowing a 13-year-old foster child to have an abortion.
Don Kazimir, who works for the diocese's Respect Life Office, which opposes abortion and the death penalty, called Alvarez's office Wednesday to ask which church the judge attends. Kazimir said he wanted to speak with Alvarez's priest, who he said might have a problem with a Catholic judge agreeing to an abortion.
Alvarez was angry about the call. It is wrong, he said, for the church to try to intimidate a judge into putting his faith above the law. ...
In the mid-'90s, he was assigned to a civil case alleging sexual abuse in the diocese. The plaintiff asked Alvarez to recuse himself because he was Catholic, and Alvarez agreed.
But though he once attended a local parish, Alvarez said he has not attended church for about three years. He said he could no longer be a part of an organization that covered up abuse by priests and quietly transferred child molesters to new churches.
"That really bothered me," he said.
Posted by kshaw at May 6, 2005 05:27 AM