PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs
Tue Apr 9, 2013.
By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has permanently removed three more priests from its ministry, including a former assistant pastor at St. Mark Parish in Bristol accused of molesting altar boys in the early 1980s.
The defrocking of Rev. Joseph Gallagher, 78, who retired in 2006, brings no sense of victory to the family of Daniel Neill, who allegedly told diocesan officials in 2007 about abuse at the hands of Gallagher, but officials declined to act, says the attorney who represents his family in a lawsuit against the archdiocese.
Church officials contacted Neill in 2008, advising him that his allegations were deemed unsubstantiated and not credible, according to the grand jury. He took his own life 11 months later at age 38, the family said.
“Obviously they had a serious problem with this priest,” attorney Marci Hamilton said Monday. “It still took them four years to remove him from ministry. It is outrageous. The fact they removed him, for the family, it’s really much too little, too late.”
In a statement released Sunday, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput announced that Gallagher and the Rev. Mark Gaspar, 43, were removed from public ministry in the archdiocese citing “substantial violations of The Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries.” The nature of the accusation against Gaspar has not been reported.
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