Admitted Mississippi Predator Still Works in Parish

SNAP
September 18, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mi_admitted_mississippi_predator_still_works_in_parish

An admitted predator priest from the US is now on the job in Peru, a new investigation has found. We beg Catholic officials in Mississippi and Chimbote to do everything possible to warn unsuspecting families about him and help law enforcement pursue him. And we beg Pope Francis to denounce and stop this long-standing stunningly-irresponsible church practice of sending predator priests abroad to work among even more vulnerable parishioners.

(Almost two years ago, we prodded newly-named Jackson Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz to publicize Fr. Madden’s crimes and alert Catholics in Chimbote to his presence there. Kopacz ignored our pleas.)

[snapnetwork.org]

In the 1970s, Fr. Paul Madden was a priest in Jackson. He repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy from his parish on a trip to Ireland.

In 2002, that victim filed a lawsuit.

In 1994, “an earlier lawsuit ended with a $50,000 payout from the diocese and an apology letter to the victim’s parents, signed by Madden,” according to GlobalPost.

“Since 1973 I have been plagued with remorse and guilt for my molestation of your son,” reads the letter.

In 2003, Fr. Madden joined the Diocese of Chimbote, Peru.

For decades, bishops and popes have engaged in this same dangerous and disingenuous pattern – sending proven, admitted or credibly accused priests abroad to more vulnerable communities – and continue to do so now, despite persistent pledges of reform.

Every single Catholic employee in the dioceses where these predator priests have been or are now should be shouting from the rooftops to secular and church authorities to take immediate action to safeguard children from these child molesting clerics.

And Pope Francis should promptly fire their supervisors and every other Catholic staffer, high or low, who has enabled or is enabling this horror to continue.