Suspended Priest Denies Abuse Allegations

Re “Priest Vows to Fight Sexual Abuse Charge,” Feb. 26: Hooray for Father D. George Spagnolia! It is about time a priest or deacon who is being maligned by his bishop gets some coverage. It’s interesting that the bishop in Boston presumes to have the ability to determine who is guilty of a crime before the judicial system makes a determination. And then, to compound his arrogance, suspends someone who has given his life to the church while denying him due process.

Father Spagnolia will succeed in obtaining due process and, I hope, vindication. He will also have to take this to Rome. I did it and Rome agreed with me.

When is The Times going to look at the issue of wrongly accused, innocent people being mistreated by the church in Los Angeles and Southern California?

Thomas E. Brandlin

Deacon

Archdiocese of Los Angeles

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In your article, David Clohessy says that it is worse to be molested than to be falsely accused of child abuse. I don’t see it. A priest or a teacher who is falsely accused has to wait a year for his name to be cleared and will have to live with the accusation for the rest of his life. Can he ever get another comparable job?

What can a priest do when he has been trained for interaction with people? Are we going to accept false accusations and even possibly invite them, as the price to pay for discovering actual cases of child abuse? Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago was falsely accused. He had the status and means to rebut his accuser, but how can an innocent pastor defend himself?

The Rev. Dr. James Tolhurst

Monrovia