BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian
August 22, 2019
By John Cox
Accused priest Craig Harrison has filed a slander lawsuit against a Catholic group that recently disseminated letters and emails alleging the Bakersfield clergyman committed sexual abuse while working at a Firebaugh church in the early 2000s.
The suit filed Aug. 6 in Kern County Superior Court says Stephen Brady, president and founder of Illinois-based Roman Catholic Faithful Inc., whose self-professed goal is to rid the church of clerical corruption, shared and published “false, defamatory, libelous and slanderous statements” during a May 29 news conference in Bakersfield.
The correspondence Brady publicized during the news conference detailed allegations that Harrison had sex with two high school students while serving as pastor of the Firebaugh church and that he would examine boys’ private parts daily as a way of checking whether they had been using drugs.
The letters and email originated with an unrelated investigation conducted in 2004 by a retired FBI agent in Merced.
Brady said Thursday it was not his goal to harm or defame Harrison, and that he was only sharing information he uncovered while trying to find out whether the accusations against the priest were true. He called the lawsuit unwarranted.
“I have nothing personal against Monsignor Harrison whatsoever,” Brady said. “I was just looking for the truth.”
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