UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on May 09, 2012
Amid nearly complete and callous – silence by Catholic officials in Missouri, Tennessee and Florida, Bishop Anthony O’Connell passed away last Friday. http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/boconnell.html
Ten years ago last month, O’Connell became the first Catholic prelate to admit molesting a boy after the US clergy sex abuse and cover up scandal began attracting national attention.
(Back in 1998, Palm Beach Bishop J. Keith Symons admitting molesting boys. Ironically, in January of 1999, O’Connell was promoted to be Palm Beach’s bishop. It’s the only known instance in which one child molesting bishop replaced another.)
In April 2002, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the story of St. Louisan Chris Dixon’s settlement with the Jefferson City diocese, which stemmed from the abuse he suffered at the hands of O’Connell and two other priests Fr. John Fischer and Fr. Manus Daly. All three were on the staff of St. Thomas seminary in Hannibal, which O’Connell headed for years, where the crimes took place.
From Missouri, O’Connell went on to become bishop in Knoxville Tennessee and bishop of Palm Beach. He’s been living at a monastery in South Carolina for several years.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.