Ex-orlando Priest Sued for Child Sex Crimes

By David Clohessy
SNAP
May 21, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/fl_ex_orlando_priest_sued_for_child_sex_crimes

[The Republic]

[BishopAccountability.org]

Two brothers are suing a Catholic diocese saying they were molested by a priest who worked at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Winter Springs and other parishes in the Orlando area.

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We applaud these brave brothers for coming forward and seeking justice. Every time clergy sex abuse victims find the courage to speak up, kids become safer and truth becomes revealed.

We hope this step will help these courageous men heal. We are confident it will help Maine Catholics learn more about corruption in their church’s hierarchy.

Though Fr. Vallely may be elderly, it’s important to remember that advanced age doesn’t “cure” a pedophile. In fact, parents are often more apt to trust their children around a slow-moving elderly man, especially one who claims to be “spiritual.”

So we hope that Fr. Vallely, and Catholic officials who helped conceal his crimes, may someday be prosecuted.

We call on the bishops of Orlando and Maine to personally visit each place where Fr. Vallely worked and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. We urge every current and former Orlando and Maine Catholic church employee or member to seek out others who were hurt by Fr. Vallely and offer them support.

These two bishops should also disclose where every one of his child molesting cleric lives and should insist that they move immediately to remote, secure, professionally-run treatment centers so that kids will be safer.