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Catholic Priest Suing Church for Defamation He Suffered in Retaliation for Reporting Abuse

Press Conference Thursday Morning 3-15-2018

Contact: Father Harrington, 781-749-7681, frjpharrington@aol.com

BRAINTREE, Mass., March 14, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Father John Harrington, a Catholic priest is suing his former bishop, several members of the clergy, including two other bishops and a psychologist for punishing and defaming him for reporting an abusive homosexual priest in the seminary and in the clergy.

    Press Conference Details:

    Date:
    Thursday, March 15, 2018

    Time:
    10:30 am

    Place:
    Hyatt Place Braintree
    50 Forbes Road
    Braintree, MA 02184
    (781) 848 - 0600

"It is well documented that there is a homosexual lobby within the Church that seeks to root out orthodox priests and seminarians who don't share their re-envisioning attitude of the Church. That I am victim of retribution by the defendants for having reported two known homosexual priests manifests the power of the homosexual lobby to impede and manipulate investigations of gay clergy accused of sexual misconduct," Harrington said.

Harrington's attempt to report sexual harassment by the academic dean of St. John's Seminary, where he was a student from 1988–1991, were rebuffed by Cardinal Law and auxiliary Bishop Robert Banks and seminary officials. Harrington was subsequently alienated and mistreated by the homosexual community leading to his departure from the seminary in 1991. "Even though Cardinal Law and Bishop Banks acknowledged the academic dean had committed sexual misconduct toward me and the class, they did not remove him from St. John's but kept him there as a show of support to the gay community," stated Harrington.

When, in 2002, Harrington applied for re-admission to St. John's, an on staff Church psychologist wrote a scurrilous psychological evaluation of Harrington used by seminary officials to reject his application. This form of ideological discrimination is a common practice used by the homosexual lobby to screen out orthodox men from the priesthood who don't share their agenda to redefine Church ministry. "Bishop Lennon and Msgr. Edyvean both agreed that the psychologist had distorted and seriously misrepresented me in his evaluation and yet Lennon, the rector of St. John's at the time, refused to expunge the scurrilous report from my file, knowing that it could be used to blackball me if I should apply to another diocese for admission," said Harrington. 

Accepted by Bishop Sean P. O'Malley of the Fall River Diocese, six months after Harrington's ordination in 2004, Fr. William M. Costello, a known gay priest and a former student of the gay friendly academic dean who sexually harassed Harrington in the seminary, falsely accused Harrington of stalking a young parishioner. Bishop George Coleman of  the Diocese of Fall River removed Harrington from St. Patrick's Parish, withdrew his priest faculties, evicted him from the diocese and, in March of 2014, stripped Harrington of his clerical garb for another false accusation made this time by the Vicar of Parish Life and Leadership of the Archdiocese of Boston. Coleman published the false allegation in his 2014 decree further injuring Harrington's reputation. All of these actions are in keeping with the homosexual lobby's agenda to weed out orthodox priests from the Catholic Church. "Bishop Coleman's decree treated Fr. Harrington with contempt," attorney Thomas Harvey said to the hearing judge last week at the Dedham Superior Court.

A copy of the Complaint will be distributed at the press conference.

For more information contact Father Harrington directly at 781 – 749 – 7681, frjpharrington@aol.com.