CHESAPEAKE (VA)
The Virginian-Pilot
By JOHN HOPKINS, The Virginian-Pilot
CHESAPEAKE — A former Roman Catholic priest who now lives in Chesapeake has been accused of being one of the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s “most brutal abusers” of children, according to a grand jury report released last week.
Former Philadelphia-area priest James J. Brzyski, 54, has started a new life in South Norfolk. He was defrocked earlier this year.
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Brzyski abused victims in two parishes of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to the grand jury report. The jury, convened in 2002 to investigate sex abuse in the archdiocese , called Brzyski a “serial mol-ester and child rapist. ”
He is one of 63 Philadelphia-area priests named in the report, which also accuses the archdiocese’s administrators of knowing about the abuse but failing to stop it or report it to law enforcement authorities.
The grand jury said Catholic Church officials first went public with Brzyski’s misconduct this year, far too late for consideration of criminal prosecution because of statutes of limitations. The same is true with the other priests named in the report, the jury said.