SARASOTA (FL)
Bradenton Herald
LAURA FIGUEROA
Herald Staff Writer
SARASOTA - After more than 20 years, a Sarasota man has come forward with allegations that the Rev. George E. Brennan of St. Patrick Catholic Church sodomized him when he was an 11-year-old altar boy at the Church of Incarnation in Sarasota.
The man, now in his early 30s, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Brennan and John J. Nevins, bishop of the Diocese of Venice. The lawsuit claims Brennan sodomized the boy "approximately four times" in 1984.
However, the Diocese of Venice is disputing the claims, saying that Brennan was not at the Church of Incarnation until May 1987. Gail McGrath, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Venice, said Brennan was a seminarian from 1983 until 1987. During those years, she said, he was studying to become a priest at St. Vincent De Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. She said he spent the summers of 1983-1986 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bradenton.