Ten years probation??! Whatever happened to prisin time for these crimes?
I say cut off his dic! Crummy pedaphile. Why is it HE gets ten years? Defrocked...I'd defrock him alright...

Scranton Diocese Settles Sex Abuse Case

(AP) - SCRANTON, Pa.-The Diocese of Scranton has agreed to pay $3 million to settle claims brought by a former altar boy who said he was sexually abused by a priest.

The victim said former Roman Catholic priest Albert M. Liberatore Jr. sexually abused him from 1999 to 2002, when he was a teenage altar boy at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Duryea.

Liberatore, now 42, pleaded guilty in 2005 in Luzerne County and New York to sexually abusing the victim. He was given 10 years probation and defrocked.

The victim's attorney, Daniel T. Brier, said the settlement was reached late Wednesday and approved by U.S. District Judge I. Richard Caputo on Thursday.

Kat

OMG! Just probation! Something is wrong with this picture.

That's sad.

Thats exactly what I am thinking. Here it is automatically 25 years maximum and I think 15 minimum. Time...not probation.
Kat

Maybe that 3 million dollar payment had something to do with it. That's sad. Any other pedophile would be going to jail.

Or in the case of my kid, were that to happen....to the local cemetery.

I'm a Catholic and it's embarrasing to watch year after year the abuses from our own diocese. I don't see these issues in other religions.... it seems all Catholic.

It appears it was a plea bargin because they did not have enough evidence to convict him under a more serious charge of abuse. I'm kind of surprised no jail time but maybe a lawyer here can explain.

Rectory employees testify Duryea priest’s relationship with teen boy was ‘not right’

11/07/2007

Ann Marie Zongilla, the housekeeper at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church’s rectory in Duryea, walked up to the attic one day in 2001 and discovered something she found shocking.

Albert M. Liberatore Jr., then-pastor at Sacred Heart, was “rolling around on the floor” with a teenage boy who had been spending a lot of time at the rectory, she said.

At one point, she added, the teen was hitting the priest’s buttocks with a plastic sword.

The incident served to strengthen her opinion there was something “not right” about the priest’s relationship with the teen, an opinion that was shared by other employees at the rectory.

Zongilla was one of several people to take the stand Tuesday in the federal sex abuse civil trial brought by a man referred to as “John Doe” in court filings. The suit claims Liberatore sexually abused the victim from 1999 to 2002, beginning when the boy was 14.

The suit also names the diocese, Sacred Heart, retired Bishop James C. Timlin, the Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz, the diocesan vicar of priests when the abuse occurred, and Brother Antonio F. Antonucci, an employee at Sacred Heart, for allegedly failing to heed warnings about the abuse and for not removing Liberatore.

Liberatore, now 42, pleaded guilty in 2005 in Luzerne County and New York to sexually abusing the victim and was sentenced to 10 years probation and defrocked.

Zongilla and Sacred Heart rectory secretary Helen Negvesky testified Tuesday they reported their concerns about Liberatore’s relationship with the teen to the Rev. Edward Williams, who also worked at Sacred Heart in the 1990s and early 2000s, and to Monsignor John Bendik, who is based in Pittston.

Negvesky said, under direct questioning by the victim’s attorney, Daniel T. Brier, Liberatore would look at the victim “the way my husband and I would look at each other before we were married.”

Williams, who also took the stand Tuesday, said he also noticed the teen at the rectory often and became concerned about the relationship Liberatore had with the teen. He spoke to Bendik because of a threat Liberatore made when Williams said he was going to speak to Timlin about those concerns.

“He said if I went to Bishop Timlin with anything, he would destroy me,” Williams said.

All three staffers said Tuesday they were not certain Liberatore was sexually abusing the teen.

“I didn’t say anything about a sexual relationship,” Zongilla said. “I didn’t see anything like that. I had no proof.”

Plaintiff’s attorney Donna Walsh asked Bendik several times whether any of the three Sacred Heart staffers said anything about their concerns about an “inappropriate sexual relationship” between Liberatore and the boy.

Each time, Bendik balked.

“Their concern was that a young fellow was spending an awful lot of time with Father Liberatore,” he said.

Later, he said, “My concern was ... it could become that. But at the time, there was no allegation of sexual abuse.”

Although Bendik spoke to Kopacz about the concerns raised by the Sacred Heart staffers, all four who took the stand Tuesday said they never heard anything from diocese leaders about the matter.

should be "DECOCKED" not defrocked!!!

I do not think It is the religion...I think it is the law of no mate thing. It is un-natural to make a man be celebate to hold the job of a catholic priest. Or some other Catholic job title which does the same.
Kat

Hey what can you say? We have the best justice system money can buy....

Capitalism at it's finest...

Again...what a shame

Creativesoul:

Thumbs up to you, my friend.

And justice for all.....all those who can "afford" it, that is.

Even O.J.?

OJ can afford it...

So sad and disgusting, how they can let sick human beings like that pretty much walk with a slap on the wrist is just down right ridiculous. Our justice system in alot of cases like this is just crap.

I am Catholic and I am apalled by the abuse that is occurring in the church. I think the church needs a thorough house cleaning from the Vatican on down and I think that probation for a sex offender is a travisty. Give them the max no matter who they are.

the early history of the vatican and the catholic church is rife with stories of debauchery and sex scandals from the earliest records...the church itself has always been a safe haven for perverts and power hungry abusers...
so this story is nothing new...

No, it is not new. Why is it that these priests or whatever get only a slap on the wrist when Joe Blow would get prison time? As it should be...The settlements in these cases is no skin off the former priests back. That's on the church. Where is his retribution?
Kat

Wouldee

I can't tell if you were responding to my "justice for all...who can afford it" line, but I was being sarcastic.

Wealth shouldn't matter as far as justice goes. That pedophile priest should have gotten the maximun prison sentence, no question.

And OJ? He SHOULD have been found guilty of double murder, in my opinion. I've mentioned that in other posts. I haven't kept up with this lastest OJ escapade enough to comment on. There's a lot more important stuff going on. I put this OJ memorabilia case in the same folder as Brittney's meltdowns and Lindsay's rehab mishaps.

if you all think that it is bad here with the catholic church go to the philippines that is where they sent the majority of gay priests that had issues,and doesnt any catholic realise that the church was started by a bunch of homosexual monks?

knoxman, yup, I was kidding around. The Catholic Church and OJ have that in common. Money can be used to purchase many distractions.

But in the end, the abuse and suffering is no joke.