Priest Says Church Defamed Him for Objecting to Cover-Up

FLORIDA
Courthouse News Service

IZZY KAPNICK

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CN) – A priest sued the Diocese of Palm Beach, claiming it defamed him in retaliation for his objections to its attempted cover-up of a foreign clergyman’s pedophilia.

In a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County, the Rev. John Gallagher claims that the way the Catholic Church treated him “shows without question that it has learned nothing from its history and continues to cover up acts of priest pedophilia.”

Gallagher says the Diocese of Palm Beach went on a campaign to sully his reputation after he publicly objected to its unwillingness to cooperate with police in a pedophilia investigation involving Joseph Palimatton, an assistant priest from India who was serving at Gallagher’s Holy Name of Jesus church in West Palm Beach.

Palimatton arrived at the church from India in December 2014, and within a month, he stood accused of a sex crime: He allegedly showed images of child pornography to a 14-year-old, including “numerous photographs of minor children who were naked and had erect penises.”

Unbeknownst to Father Gallagher, Palimatton had been involved in several sexual abuse events, the lawsuit claims. The Catholic Church in India had transferred him to Gallagher’s church allegedly without disclosing his past abuses.

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