Press TV
November 24, 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/152280.html
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| Ex-US priest John Fiala is accused of hiring someone to kill a teenager who filed a lawsuit against him for sexual abuse. |
A Roman Catholic priest, already charged with having sexually abused a boy, has now been charged with trying to hire someone to kill the teenager.
Father John Fiala of Dallas, Texas, who was out on bond on sexual assault charges against the youth, was arrested last week after he negotiated with an undercover officer to murder the teenager, according to US authorities.
The police began the investigation after a neighbor tipped off the sheriff of a nearby county.
Fiala was removed from church duty in October 2008 and is now being held in a Dallas County jail. He faces one count of solicitation to commit murder and two counts of sexual assault.
"Fiala had threatened him with physical violence and threatened to kill him before, and he was very afraid of that," the boy's attorney, Tom Rhodes, told Express-News.
The Vatican has been embroiled in several child abuse scandals, which surfaced in Catholic institutions in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and the US over the past years.
There have recently been numerous protests worldwide against the Vatican's handling of the scandals. The protesters have called for the pedophile priests to be brought to justice.
Just this year, at least 300 people have accused a number of German Catholic priests of sexual or physical abuse.
The victims accuse the Roman Catholic Church of covering up the cases by shifting priests to other parishes.
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