NEW YORK
New York Newsday
BY CAROL EISENBERG
STAFF WRITER
July 9, 2005
Six priests in the Archdiocese of New York, including one who tried to pay boys for sex, and a second who plied a boy with vodka and had oral sex with him, have been defrocked by the Roman Catholic Church.
Defrocking a priest is the most severe penalty the Roman Catholic Church can impose, and means he cannot act as a priest, and loses all pension and financial support.
The decisions by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome -- the final arbiter of an accused priest's fate -- were published in this week's Catholic New York, the archdiocesan newspaper, where Cardinal Edward Egan had promised to name those permanently removed from ministry.
Two of the six defrocked men had already been convicted of sex abuse in state criminal courts: Patrick Quigley pleaded guilty in 1994 to a misdemeanor charge after admitting he had offered several young boys money for sex in Haverstraw Village in Rockland County. Quigley had served in parishes in Staten Island, Manhattan and Rockland County.
Daniel Calabrese, 44, pleaded guilty in 1992 to charges he had performed oral sex on a teenager after getting him drunk on vodka in a Poughkeepsie rectory. Calabrese had served in parishes in Congers, Staten Island and Poughkeepsie.
Besides Quigley and Calabrese, the other defrocked men are:
David Carson, ordained in 1984, who had served parishes in Staten Island and Congers, with his final assignment as chaplain with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Bath.
Kenneth A. Jesselli, ordained in 1984, who had served in parishes in Westchester, the Bronx and Yonkers.
Ralph W. LaBelle, ordained in 1978, who had served parishes in Staten Island, the Bronx and Putnam County.
Francis J. Stinner, ordained in 1967, who had served in parishes and high schools in Orange, Sullivan and Westchester Counties.
A seventh man, the Rev. Alfred Gallant, 69, who had served in Orange County was assigned to "a life of prayer and penance" -- a penalty reserved for priests who are sick or elderly.