FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Joe Capozzi – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Father John Gallagher is a priest without a parish — the result, he said, of his decision to tell authorities about a West Palm Beach priest who showed pornographic material to a minor.
He received praise from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, whose chief deputy urged Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley to make sure Gallagher receives “accolades” for helping prosecute the priest.
Instead, Gallagher said he has been “frozen out” by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, which changed the locks on his parochial house at Holy Name of Jesus Christ Catholic Church on Military Trail and placed him on medical leave.
The diocese denied Gallagher’s assertions, which were detailed in a story published Monday by The Irish Independent newspaper, calling them “an inaccurate representation of the facts.’’
But Gallagher stands by his claims, which he says point to a larger problem in a diocese that in 2002 pledged a zero-tolerance policy after the resignation of the second of two bishops in four years over charges of improper sexual relationships with teenage boys.
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