[Antoninus]

As for Bishop McDonnell ... uh oh....

Rev. Hired Despite Cloud

By Don Singleton
(NY) Daily News
March 23, 2002

Despite a questionable reputation that was apparently well known in the Catholic Church, the Rev. Francis Stinner was hired by a Westchester County church last year to conduct weekend Mass.

Officials at the church, St. John and St. Mary's in Chappaqua, refused to comment yesterday on a Daily News article that detailed a former altar boy's allegations of sexual abuse by Stinner.

A source in the Archdiocese of New York said the allegations about Stinner received widespread publicity in Catholic circles.

"There is no priest in the diocese who was unaware of Father Stinner's problems," the source said.

The pastor who hired Stinner, the Rev. Timothy McDonnell, is no longer at the church - he was elevated in December to the rank of bishop and is serving in the archdiocese, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

McDonnell was unavailable yesterday, said Zwilling, who added that the archdiocese did not assign Stinner to the Chappaqua church
.
In an exclusive account in The News yesterday, a 37-year-old man charged that Stinner began abusing him more than 25 years ago, while he was an altar boy in St. Mary's Church in upstate Port Jervis.

The alleged victim, identified only by his middle name, Joseph, said Stinner continued the abuse on more than 100 occasions at the priest's residence and in other religious settings.

Joseph, who eventually accepted a $35,000 payment and a new car from the archdiocese and got a letter of "personal regret" from the late John Cardinal O'Connor, told The News he was stunned to learn that Stinner was still in the priesthood.

"I can't believe he is in church, around altar boys," Joseph said. "That's how he started abusing me."

[sinkspur]

There is no priest in the diocese who was unaware of Father Stinner's problems," the source said.

So, Father (later Bishop) McDonnell knew about the abuse allegations, yet hired Stinner anyway. Talk about giving his parishioners the finger!

And McDonnell follows an abuser in Springfield?

If laypeople had any input on these decisions, McDonnell would still be an auxiliary bishop. Actually, he likely would never have been named a bishop in the first place.