Posted on 07/22/2007 3:08:25 PM PDT by hardback
Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani has close ties to a Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys and who also was the lawyer for a now-closed Whitinsville counseling house for troubled priests that has been described as the center of a pedophile sex ring.
Monsignor Alan J. Placa, who works for Mr. Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was legal adviser in the 1980s to the House of Affirmation, where priests accused of sexual abuse were sent for psychotherapy and other counseling services. The center closed in 1987 amid a financial scandal.
Monsignor Placa, who while an active priest arranged the annulment of Mr. Giuliani’s first marriage, baptized his two children and officiated at the funeral of his mother, is a childhood friend of Mr. Giuliani and they both attended Manhattanville College.
He was stripped of his duties as a priest, but not defrocked, after Newsday, a Long Island newspaper, published a story in 2002 about young men who alleged that Monsignor Placa abused them in the 1970s. He has been on administrative leave since and has worked for Mr. Giuliani for the past five years.
Catholic activists who are fighting the church over the clergy sex abuse issue say Mr. Giuliani’s association with the monsignor raises serious questions about the former New York mayor’s candidacy.
“The White House should not be inhabited by a man whose closest friend is accused of being an abuser of young men,” said Ann Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org in Massachusetts. “Giuliani has a responsibility to account for his friendship with Alan Placa and I think he should speak with Alan Placa’s accusers and see how credible they are.
“For Giuliani to turn a blind eye to these credible allegations raises questions about his judgment,” she said.
Jeffrey Barker, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani’s campaign, declined comment, directing questions to Giuliani Partners, Mr. Giuliani’s security consulting firm. Mr. Giuliani leads all GOP presidential contenders in Massachusetts polls.
“Rudy Giuliani believes Alan Placa has been unjustly accused,” Sunny Mindel, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a prepared statement.
Monsignor Placa did not respond to a request for an interview.
The monsignor was closely associated with several Central Massachusetts priests who were at the center of a clergy sex abuse scandal in the 1990s.
At least three lawsuits were filed by area residents who said they were assaulted as boys by priests at the Whitinsville facility. The accused priests included colleagues of Monsignor Placa, one of whom was the Rev. Thomas A. Kane, former pastor of St. Mary Church in Uxbridge.
Monsignor Placa still lives in the rectory of the Long Island church where Monsignor Brendan Riordan, a former director of the House of Affirmation who was named in a sex abuse lawsuit settled by the Worcester Diocese in the mid-1990s, is pastor. He has also owned property in New York with Monsignor Riordan and co-owned property in Florida with him and Rev. Kane.
A 1993 suit filed against Rev. Kane, the diocese and the House of Affirmation by Mark Barry of Uxbridge alleges that Rev. Kane repeatedly sexually assaulted him. The New York Times has reported that Monsignor Placa was the first lawyer Rev. Kane turned to after learning of Mr. Barry’s accusations.
That suit was settled for less than $50,000 and included a non-disclosure provision. Mr. Barry has not spoken publicly about the case since.
David Lewcon, 53, of Northbridge, who worked at the center in the 1970s as a painter and wallpaperer helping his father, a contractor, renovate the 1898 building, has accused Rev. Kane of sexually assaulting him. Mr. Lewcon settled what he described as a “six-figure” lawsuit with the Worcester Diocese in which he alleged he was sexually assaulted as a minor by the Rev. Thomas H. Teczar at St. Mary in Uxbridge.
Mr. Lewcon described the House of Affirmation as a breeding ground for sexual predators.
“It was presented as a retreat for vocational redirection,” said Mr. Lewcon, a publisher of speciality magazines. “What we have found out since, and what it has been called in the Blackstone Valley by people who really know what went on there, is that it was a pedophile boot camp.”
Monsignor Placa’s involvement with the Whitinsville facility drew additional attention after the release of a 2003 report from a Suffolk County, N.Y., grand jury that accuses him of molesting young boys and, in his role as a lawyer, helping to cover up sex abuse by other priests.
He was referred to as “Priest F” in the grand jury’s lengthy investigative report, which quotes a letter he wrote to colleagues in which he touted his track record of settling multimillion dollar clergy sex abuse claims for “sums ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.” The 180-page report was written after more than 30 priests and more than 40 victims of abuse testified.
The report notes that no indictments were issued because the alleged crimes had occurred more than five years previously and could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Richard Tollner, one of Monsignor Placa’s chief accusers in the Rockville Centre, Long Island, clergy sex abuse scandal, confirmed to the Salon online magazine that he was one of the victims who gave grand jury testimony and that Monsignor Placa was Priest F.
Monsignor Placa has denied Mr. Tollner’s allegations.
Mr. Tollner and other alleged victims in New York have accused Monsignor Placa of presenting himself as a priest in interviews with them when he was really acting as the lawyer for the Rockville Centre Diocese. Monsignor Placa has denied these accusations.
“He was misusing his identity and failing to disclose to them that he was a civil lawyer,” said Daniel J. Shea, a lawyer who has represented victims of clergy sex abuse in Central Massachusetts. “The grand jury report indicated he was representing himself to victims as a priest with a Roman collar.”
With news reports on Mr. Giuliani’s relationship to Monsignor Placa, some clergy abuse victims say they think Mr. Giuliani may be forced to answer harder questions about the link to his boyhood friend and employee.
George “Skip” Shea of Uxbridge, 47, an actor and artist who also agreed to an out-of-court settlement in a sex abuse case against Rev. Teczar, worked briefly at the House of Affirmation in the 1970s as a groundskeeper.
“It was a serious, full-blown sex mentality there,” George Shea said.
“Eventually this will stick,” he said of Monsignor Placa’s links to the GOP presidential contender.
Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at ssutner@telegram.com.
As I have said until I am blue in the face, the only thing voters unhappy with GWB know to do is vote for Hillary. They are incapable of creating other options.
I believe that qualifies you as a candidate for insanity.
Yes. You've demonstrated as much in this thread.
distracting from your mission... what’s your mission champ?...
It isn't my mission, chump, it's Free Republic's mission that's being opposed when Rudytards pollute this forum with support for a candidate who stands in stark opposition to that mission. But maybe a newb like you hasn't been here long enough to learn what that mission is. Let me school you:
Here's an excerpt:
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our borders, our constitution and our national sovereignty.We aggressively defend our God-given and first amendment guaranteed rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and freedom of association, as well as our constitutional right to control the use and content of our own personal private property. Despite the wailing of the liberal trolls and other doom & gloom naysayers, we feel no compelling need to allow them a platform to promote their repugnant and obnoxious propaganda from our forum. Free Republic is not a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of life.
Really. Tell us how you really feel about Fred and any other conservative Republican candidate. We're all ears.
It’s a sad day for America when so-called Republicans start supporting abortion, gay rights, gun control, sanctuary cities, and amnesty for illegal aliens. No thanks. Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-liberty and pro-American sovereignty. Those who want to suck up to liberals and abortionists are free to join the socialist Brits and their turncoat RINO friends over at WAnkers.net.
Beware newbie rudytard, back Fred or your days are numbered./s/
It’s a done deal... Rudy is your next president”
That comment makes me want to put on “White Rabbit” by the Jeff Airplane.
No way that reprehensible moral leper even gets the nomination, much less the election.
Oh, champ... I see... you got mission... like Tom Cruise.... good for you :)
Here is a star for your great effort * You are a champ!!!
Rah!! Rah!!
I just was responding to the headline and the glee some were having... I didn’t know the feelings about Rudy ran that deep.
It is noted.
“Really. Tell us how you really feel about Fred and any other conservative Republican candidate. We’re all ears.”
I’d support them (except Paul) when the MSM is trying to destroy them... Fred too, champ.
“Rudy was friends with a guy who has been accused of wrongdoing.”
Seems to me he remained friends with him after the accusations became public knowledge.
“One, people are innocent until proven guilty.”
That’s in a court of law. In real life, it is possible to know things with enough certainty for all human purposes without going through a legal process.
“Two, was he supposed to read the guy’s mind?”
Scumbags of a feather flock together. Moral lepers have friends who are moral lepers. Decent people do not.
I'd vote for him before I'd vote for Giuliani, that's for sure. (Don't know about the McCain thing, though... goodness, I'd have to be desperate. Or paid. LOL.)
Look at the headline.
DC is not the successor to CP. They keep a pretty tight rein on the threads to keep them from getting to that point.
You know...DC was started because their scientific views became “unwelcome” here. They have their forum and FR has its forum. Leave them alone, and I’m sure they will leave you alone.
“Read this very carefully. Rudy has had all sorts of friends and cronies who later turned out to be corrupt.”
Rudy’s a politician.
Show me one who DOESN’T have “all sorts of friends and cronies who... turned out to be corrupt.”
Actually, there is hard core debate going on all over this site re: Paul, Hunter, Fred, Romney..
It's just that this being a conservative site, we tend not to like liberals like you and Rudy.
Quite your holier than thou whining. We all see right through it. You thought this was the big RINO year, where a RINO would become president. Now that it's not going to happen, or at least looking more difficult, you are complaining that other people don't agree with you.
You are not the first Rudy supporter here to make the same complaints. So my advice is quit the whining routine and make the best pitch for your guy (without tearing down Reagan and the Founding Fathers, as the now banned Rudy supporters were doing).
If you quite whining and simply argue for your guy, you will find robust debate.
You've been here since 2004 and you didn't know that FReepers were loudly and firmly opposed to liberals?! You're not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you...
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