September 28, 2005

Jackpot priest in D.A.'s perv report

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By DANA DiFILIPPO
difilid@phillynews.com

When the Rev. Frank Giliberti won more than $1 million at an Atlantic City casino 17 years ago, the portly priest promised to give it all away.

He funded a pricey remodel of his Wynnefield church, set up a scholarship fund for poor high-schoolers and spread the wealth to other needy causes.

Now, it seems, he was just doing penance.

The retired cleric was one of 63 priests blasted in a report the district attorney released last week detailing decades of sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Giliberti, now 68 and living in a Darby nursing home for retired priests, is accused of running a so-called anti-masturbation "boot camp" at his Jersey shore house where he walked in on boys as they masturbated. He also allegedly abused at least two boys while he was still a seminarian and another two who were his students at Cardinal O'Hara High School, in Springfield, Delaware County.

Posted by kshaw at September 28, 2005 07:34 AM