You didn't read the article, did you? Yes, two allegations were made, the second one AFTER the massive publicity on the first one. Did you read where the priest did not even KNOW the accuser? Does the priest get an attorney, a trial? Or have you already judged him guilty?
Rule One: "Rome" is the locus of all evil in the universe.
Rule Two: In case of doubt, see Rule One.
Corollary: "Rome" must be destroyed. All else is irrelevant.
I read where the priest SAID he didn't know the accuser and where the vicar and canon lawyer SAID the accusations were “CREDIBLE”. “Credible” as in believable, plausible, worthy of belief. Twice.
Age of consent and age of majority vary from state to state but majority always means at or above a person is an adult and below is a minor, a child.
‘Does the priest get an attorney, a trial?” Who knows from an incomplete and anonymous letter?
“Or have you already judged him guilty?”
It was the vicar and lawyer who said there was credible accusations against him so at this point the priest has offered no contrary evidence beyond his own word in the letter.
No, I haven't judged him guilty as you seem to have the victims but I sure wouldn't let him near my children(of any age) either!!
Here’s a penalty levelled with no pretense of due process. “A credible allegation” justifies verdict and sentence?
It’s not just a Catholic phenomenon that clergy get weird stuff said about them. I forget what it was but when I was in a mission church somebody started up some rumor. There was some factionalism in the congregation about changing the form of worship, as the bishop (to whom all missions answer) required. Nancy and I took a little heat, but nearly everyone in the parish knew the rumor-monger was a slightly addled troublemaker.
How hard would it be to cobble up a “credible allegation” about something that happened to a man now dead? How hard would be it to establish one’s innocence for something that might or might not have happened some years ago?
In our current parish, the friars doors all have windows in them so that the friar can be seen from the corridor. Towards the end of my time in the Episcopal Church I would not close the door if I was alone with anyone. It’s scary out there!