PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips, Mark Fazlollah and Craig R. McCoy
Inquirer Staff Writers
When the Rev. James Gigliotti told church officials in the early 1980s that a Northeast Philadelphia priest was molesting boys, he remembers receiving a stern warning.
"This comes from the highest authority: You're to keep your mouth shut," Gigliotti said an assistant chancellor told him.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese quickly removed the accused priest, the Rev. James J. Brzyski, from his parish in the Fox Chase section.
But the archdiocese did not tell parishioners the reason. Nor did it report Brzyski to police.
With his conduct a secret, Brzyski remained a welcome guest in parishioners' homes. A former altar boy said this meant Brzyski kept abusing him - for years.