Posted on 09/24/2014 6:32:15 PM PDT by Gamecock
HAMPTONS BAY, Long Island (PIX11)– A Long Island priest is accused of molesting a 6-year-old girl, resulting in her contracting an STD.
Rev. Augusto Cortez, 50, a Catholic priest of the Vincentian congregation, is wanted by police for sexually assaulting a little girl from Long Island, according to police.
Her family, who will not be named in order to avoid identifying the alleged victim, is deeply distraught, particularly because their child’s suspected molester is someone they trusted and turned to for religious guidance.
“It’s the deepest pain that any mother can ever feel,” the victim’s mother said.
Cortez spent numerous holidays and outings with the family.
The mom says Cortez was an invited guest at a recent house party, but at one point she walked in to find her daughter and him alone. That’s how she discovered the alleged abuse.
Her daughter is now in therapy to deal with the emotional issue.
While she does feel safe to talk knowing he won’t be coming back, she says the abuse happened more times than she can count and she was diagnosed with a painful sexually transmitted disease.
South Hampton police questioned Cortez, but he was not arrested.
“I feel like the Church had something to do with him fleeing,” the mother said.
It wasn’t the first time Cortez had been in trouble with the law.
He is currently on probation for molesting a 12-year-old girl in Brooklyn back in 2008, according to court documents. He was working at St. John the Baptist in Bed Stuy. At the time, Vincentians wrote a letter to the court saying they would supervise Cortez while he was on probation and he would be assigned to their headquarters in Philadelphia — not churches on Long Island.
The Vincentian order did not return calls for comment.
A few days later after the initial questioning, the priest disappeared and now, prosecutors say there is an active search for the him.
Michael Dowd is the attorney working with family and is trying to get the word out about the priest.
“This is about protecting not even their own child but knowing he told them there other families he was close to in Nassau and Suffolk,” Dowd said. “The hope is that they will hear this broadcast. See his picture and start asking their children what happened when he was around.”
Yes it does. Does attacking the catholic church do anything to punish this man?
“The man here is the problem, not the church.” - DD
Yes - the man, who happens to be a priest is the problem. So, are the other priests that enabled him to be in this position - again, through their actions and inactions.
Pedophile priests should be immediately de-frocked, minimum. Then the criminal justice system should treat then as they would any other sex offender.
*Any* organization of men, that allows these deviants to stay in their company has no right to complain when these deviants tarnish the reputation of the organization! The organization, in this case the priesthood, earned the tarnish, again.
Don't you get it?
If sin and scandal within the Catholic Church can be shown to rise to some arbitrary, auto-defined level, this voids the Church's claims to be whom she says she is.
Look at these foul sinners!! No way is this the one, true Church!!
Any stick will do to beat a dog.
That's about it.
For decades the catholic church covered up the problem, treated the victims and their families like dirt, and shuffled the monsters around so they could continue their assaults.
The church hierarchy did enormous damage, not just to the victims but to the faithful too. Speaking honestly about what they did may not punish *this* man but certainly will help to keep the church from continuing those ways.
There are many sad examples of organizations doing exactly the same thing as the Catholic Church did. Are priests held to a higher standard? Yes, the Bible says God holds them to a higher standard.
As a society we have tended to cover up these types of crimes.
Sounds like Penn State and a myriad of other organizations. The problem is more wide spread then just the Catholics.
You seem to have forgotten- truth is the new hate speech!
I just went to your homepage and saw the map of states visited. You’ve been in MA and Maine but not in New Hampshire?
If you drove from MA to Maine you went through a few miles of New Hampshire. Believe it or not - they have a few miles of ocean front between those two states.
Didn’t drive between them at least not that I remember. It is beautiful up there.
Wood chipper.
You mean sort of like school teachers never being fired for molesting children, just getting reassigned to another district?
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Of course this is the RELIGION FORUM.
School teachers are discussed elsewhere.
BTW, can you provide a link to a thread on school districts shuffling child rapists around? I certainly would like to post on that thread.
A holy priest once told me if you want your marriage to last “til death do you part,” always find something good to say about your spouse, even though you might be burning with anger. I think the same thing applies to the Catholic Church (find something to say that is kind), even though you might be burning with anger. Christ will take care of its criminals.
Schools are notorious for passing the buck on abusive teachers. The unions take care of them. They just shuffle them off to another district. Been that way for years. No need in me giving a generic link for something that goes on all over the United States and has since the founding of the country, or should I say since Unions started running the public school system.
>>If only they get rid of homosexual priests...
Oh. Wait. This was a girl.<<
What kind of comment is this? A pedophile is a pedophile regardless, but must point out that the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse by catholic priest are homosexual in nature.
Despicable crime!!
I don't think anyone is attacking the catholic church. Good grief, there have been thousands of incidents of child sexual abuse by priest...thousands. The catholic church as an entity has a big problem. It is not wrong to point this out.
I will say this and I believe it with all my heart. How better would satan attack the church than from within. How better to destroy generations of faith and trust in God than to use a priest to steal and defile the innocence and trust of a small child.
My heart weeps deeply for these children.
Agree, my heart is swelled in swelled my throat at the moment for that innocent child. My the Lord somehow give her peace.
“The man here is the problem, not the church.” - DD
Yes - the man, who happens to be a priest is the problem. So, are the other priests that enabled him to be in this position - again, through their actions and inactions.
Pedophile priests should be immediately de-frocked, minimum. Then the criminal justice system should treat then as they would any other sex offender.
*Any* organization of men, that allows these deviants to stay in their company has no right to complain when these deviants tarnish the reputation of the organization! The organization, in this case the priesthood, earned the tarnish, again.
“The man here is the problem, not the church.”
Yup. I always say I have a great relationship with God. It’s the men of the Church I have problems with!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.