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Sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach

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The sexual abuse scandal in Palm Beach diocese is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States and Ireland.

Bishop Joseph Keith Symons resigned as ordinary in 1998 after admitting he molested five boys early in his career.[1]

Symons' successor Anthony O'Connell resigned in 2002 after admitting to molesting an underage seminarian. O'Connell held a press conference to admit his wrongdoing and publicly apologized to the man.[2]

In an effort to quell the scandal, Sean O'Malley was appointed bishop of Palm Beach on September 3, 2002. He was installed on the following October 19.[3][4] He served the Diocese of Palm Beach for less than a year before being appointed to return to Massachusetts to succeed Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston and put out the firestorm of controversy caused by Law's conduct.

Bishop Gerald Barbarito has repeatedly pledged to remove from ministry any priests found to have abused a child and to help abuse victims in any way the Church can, but he has seen no need to publicly name accused priests.[5]

On January 7, 2015, India native Rev. Jose Palimattom, who was serving as the pastor at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach, was arrested for possessing child pornography and for asking a kid to erase it from his phone.[6] On September 17, 2020, a lawsuit was filed against both the Diocese of Palm Beach and administrators of its All Saint's School in Jupiter, alleging that both parties failed to protect an 11-year-old girl from repeated sexual abuse by another student in an unsupervised classroom on campus.[7] The alleged abuse occurred between January and March 2020.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Palm Beach Bishop Admits Sex Abuse" by Gross, Judy - National Catholic Reporter, Vol. 34, Issue 32, June 19, 1998". Archived from the original on May 1, 2019.
  2. ^ "Church in Crisis: Scandal's fallout still settling in Palm Beach". www.natcath.org. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  3. ^ Goodstein, Laurie (September 4, 2002). "Scandal-Torn Palm Beach Diocese Gets Bishop". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  4. ^ Massachusetts bishop named to lead scandal-plagued Palm Beach Diocese
  5. ^ "New Palm Beach Bishop Won't Identify Any Priests Accused of Abuse". www.bishop-accountability.org. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  6. ^ "Priest arrested in Florida; accused of child porn on phone".
  7. ^ a b Burke, Peter; Gilmore, Chris (September 17, 2020). "Lawsuit claims All Saints Catholic School failed to protect student from sexual abuse in classroom". WPTV. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
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