Posted on 11/27/2007 3:12:15 PM PST by calcowgirl
TIES THAT BIND
Against the advice of some of his campaign advisers, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has kept a suspended Catholic priest and childhood friend on the payroll of Giuliani Partners as a consultant. The priest has been caught up in the continuing sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
Msgr. Alan Placa, who was suspended from his priestly duties back in 2002 and who has also served as a practicing attorney, has worked on a consulting basis with Giuliani Partners. In 2003 a grand jury in Suffolk County, New York, accused Placa of sexually abusing multiple victims. That report was posted by the Bishop Accountability Project. According to the report, Monsignor Placa has been identified in media reports as "Priest F."
Giuliani has defended Placa, whom he has known going back to their days growing up together in Brooklyn. Placa now lives in a parish in Great Neck, New York, run by a fellow Monsignor, Brendan Riordan, who himself was named in a sex lawsuit that was filed against the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts. Placa and Riordan are business partners in several real estate ventures in and around New York City.
Placa, according to Giuliani insiders, has served as a legal consultant for the Giuliani Partners, and is one of Giuliani's closest friends. Placa oversaw the annulment of one of Giuliani's marriages and baptized both of Giuliani's children.
"[Giuliani] would never walk away from a friend, especially a friend who goes all the way back to the neighborhood," says a Giuliani supporter in New York. "This is not a donor we're talking about, it's a life-long friend."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
"Alan Placa is one of the finest people I know. He has helped thousands of people as a priest,
as a teacher and as a friend. ... If most people did half the good that Alan's done, the world
would be a wonderful place."
--Rudy Giuliani
Who is Alan Placa?
Monsignor Alan J. Placa, a former high-ranking adviser in the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York.
“I am able to give some of my time to helping other bishops and religious congregations
- One of Giuliani's two oldest and dearest childhood friends.
- 1960s - Together with Giuliani, attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn and Manhattan College.
- 1968 - Served as Giuliani's best man in his first wedding, to Regina Peruggi.
- 1970 - Ordained a priest
- 1983 - Credited with finding the loophole that allowed the Vatican to annul Giuliani's first marriage from Regina Peruggi (second cousins)
- 1984 - Officiated at Giuliani's second marriage to Donna Hanover.
- 1986/89 - Baptized Giuliani's children from his second marriage, Caroline and Andrew.
- Early 1990s - Florida property transferred to Placa's name by his friend Rev. Thomas A. Kane shortly before Kane declared bankruptcy. Kane was the co-founder and former director of the House of Affirmation in Massachusetts, a treatment center for priests with sex abuse and other problems. Kane left the House of Affirmations in 1986 amid allegations of financial impropriety; the facility closed in 1989. Alan Placa acted as a lawyer for the House of Affirmation, settling sexual abuse cases.
- Jan 1994 - At Giuliani's swearing-in ceremony for his first term as mayor, Placa said a prayer for the new mayor before he took the oath of office.
- 2000 - Ministered to Giuliani when he was suffering from prostate cancer.
- Sep 2001 - Giuliani asked his staff to consult with Placa on canon law and how to expedite declarations of death and payments of life insurance policies to families for those missing in the 9/11 disaster.
- Apr 2002 - Placa removed by Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre from a panel investigating clerical sexual abuse after several families claimed Placa had used his role as a spiritual adviser to get information from victims that would bolster the diocese's legal position.
- Jun 2002 - Placa on leave from the Diocese after allegations surfaced that he molested a teenage seminarian about 25 years ago.
- Sep 2002 - Placa receives special permission from Diocese to preside over the funeral of Giuliani's mother, Helen Giuliani.
- Feb 2003 - Grand Jury report released outlining allegations against Placa of sexual abuse involvement in cover-up of priest sex-abuse scandals.
- Aug 2003 - Begins employment at Giuliani Partners, as an attorney, where partner Michael Hess, the ex-mayor's corporation counsel, also handled Placa's legal matters.
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