NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance
BY TRACEY PORPORA Porpora@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A former Midland Beach pastor is suing Cardinal Timothy Dolan and other Roman Catholic Church officials for $2 million for what he says were false child pornography claims, the NY Post reports.
The Rev. Keith Fennessy was barred from priestly ministry and booted from his position as pastor of St. Columba’s R.C. Church in Manhattan on June 15, 2015, by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
An archdiocesan review board determined that Rev. Fennessy had images of minors on his personal and office computers that violated the church’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
Dolan accepted the board’s recommendation that Rev. Fennessy would no longer be allowed to serve as a priest, according to Catholic New York and Joseph Zwilling, communications director for the archdiocese.
In legal papers, Rev. Fennessy says that the cardinal, the archdiocese and its spokesman Joseph Zwilling and the Catholic New York newspaper made accusations “with a reckless disregard” for the truth,” the report says.
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