Hawaii Pedophile Priest Is Paroled

By David Clohessy
SNAP
July 24, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/hi_hawaii_pedophile_priest_is_paroled

[Star-Bulletin]

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

For immediate release: July 24, 2013

A predator priest has just been released on parole.

Fr. Mark Matson, a Catholic priest of the Colorado-based Theatine Fathers order, was tried and convicted in 2000 in Hawaii for sexual assaulting a 13-year-old boy. Matson was sentenced to 20 years.

[link]

This week, he was freed. (See official notice below.)

We believe Catholic officials, in Hawaii, California, Texas and Colorado, should use their vast resources – parish bulletins, church websites, diocesan newspapers and pulpit announcements – to warn families about him.

In addition to his Hawaii conviction, Matson has been accused of abusing boys in Colorado and California. Furthermore, a Colorado man filed a civil suit against Matson for sexual molesting and assaulting him at 13 years old at St. Andrew’s Seminary in the 1970s. (Miami attorney Adam Horowitz represented the victim.)

Matson also worked in San Antonio and as a chaplain at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. He often performed magic tricks as a way to approve and impress youngsters.

[link]

[link]

Now that Matson has been released on parole, the duty of his Catholic supervisors isn’t over. They recruited, educated, ordained, hired, transferred and shielded him. They still have a moral and civic obligation to safeguard kids from him by warning citizens about him.