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AMERICAN SEMINARY IN ROME TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST LAWSUIT ALLEGING “PREDATORY HOMOSEXUALITY.

Seminarian Anthony J Gorgia

American seminary in Rome to defend itself against lawsuit alleging ‘predatory homosexuality’

By Catholic News Agency Staff

The American seminary in Rome has said it will defend itself “vigorously” against a lawsuit filed by a former student who says he was blocked from continuing his studies there after he had witnessed inappropriate homosexual contact on the part of the vice rector.

Father Peter Harman – Rector

The North American College (NAC), its Rector Fr. Peter Harman, Vice Rector Fr. Adam Park, and faculty member Fr. John McDonald were named as defendants in a Feb. 3 lawsuit filed in Richmond County, New York, by Anthony J. Gorgia.

Father Adam Park Vice Rector

Gorgia, a former seminarian for the Archdiocese of New York, began studies at the NAC in the summer of 2017. In the 58-page lawsuit, he claims to have witnessed and disapproved of Park initiating inappropriate physical contact with another seminarian.

Father John McDonald

“PANSIES ARE MOST BEAUTIFUL AT THE END OF THEIR SEASON” – Fr McDonald.

According to the lawsuit, Gorgia left the NAC for a period during the first semester of his second year of formation to undergo an operation in his home diocese.

Gorgia accuses Harman, Park, and McDonald of creating “false accusations” about him to prevent his return to the seminary in 2018. Gorgia claims this was done because of his heterosexual orientation and the defendants’ desire “to protect themselves from exposure of their predatory homosexuality at the NAC.”

The lawsuit states that Gorgia submitted a letter of resignation as a seminarian of the archdiocese of New York in January 2019, “under duress.”


Gorgia is seeking $125 million in damages in civil court on 12 causes of action, including defamation, wrongful discharge, sexual harassment, emotional distress, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and interference with prospective economic advantage.


His lawsuit also warns of ongoing homosexual conduct by priests and at least one unnamed bishop affiliated with the college.

A spokesman for the North American College said in a statement to CNA Feb. 4 that the school was “saddened” by the news of the lawsuit and anticipates defending itself against Gorgia “with the facts of the matter.”

“We have full confidence in the Rector, staff, and seminarians of the North American College,” the spokesman said.

The Archdiocese of New York and its archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan were also named in the suit, along with 25 persons “whose identities are not yet known.”

The suit accuses Cardinal Dolan of being complicit in the “nefarious plan” of Park, Harman, and McDonald, by accepting Harman’s directive that Gorgia leave the NAC and fulfill a parish assignment before determining if he could return to the NAC or to the archdiocesan seminary.


Joseph Zwilling, director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New York, said in a statement to CNA Feb. 4 that “the claims in this case against the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Dolan are absurd and have no basis in fact or law. We are prepared to defend against it, and will seek its dismissal in court.”

The NAC said in its statement that “seminarians are encouraged to report any allegations of misconduct and assured that such allegations are taken seriously.”

It added that, “unfortunately, Mr. Gorgia never made any allegation of misconduct to NAC leadership during his time as a seminarian.”

In his lawsuit, Georgia says he was unaware of the motives of Park, Harman, and the other defendants at the time the events took place.

The suit alleges that the motivations became clear to Gorgia “much later, upon receiving credible information” about continued alleged homosexual activity by Harman and Park and other “active homosexuality” at the seminary.

Gorgia is the organizer of a GoFundMe page entitled “Save Our Seminarians Fund,” requesting donations up to a goal of $250,000. In six months he has received donations of more than $25,000.


In a video posted seven months ago to YouTube, and embedded in the donation page’s description, Gorgia can be seen saying “those to be held accountable have massive financial resources only bolstered by their many appeals for donations. For this reason, I ask your support that will allow my legal case to move forward and uphold my efforts to raise awareness so that no seminarian should have to suffer as I have.”

PAT SAYS:

Thank God, that at last, an unjustly treated seminarian is taking his seminary and diocese to court over predatory homosexuality in the seminary.

Roman Catholic seminaries are now places of danger for young men.

Entering a seminary leaves you open to sexual grooming, sexual assault, rape etc.

I hope some former seminarians or novices from Ireland comes forward to take a case against Maynooth or their religious order.

They also need to take personal cases against any staff member, religious priest/brother or fellow seminarians/novices who tried to groom, assault or rape them.

Legal cases like this are the only way to bring it home to bishops and religious superiors that such behaviour is intolerable.

Good luck to Anthony Gorgia with his case against New York and the US College in Rome.

ANTHONY’S GO FUND ME PAGE FOR HIS LEGAL FEES

https://gofund.me/899b787f

I have donated $ 30

70 replies on “AMERICAN SEMINARY IN ROME TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST LAWSUIT ALLEGING “PREDATORY HOMOSEXUALITY.”

I don’t know you but saw that you donated to the fund to save our seminarians here in the US. Thank you for your witness. If you know any of the hierarchy responsible for looking into this matter please implore them to stop vigorously defending themselves and to show compassion for the Church by investigating and correcting.

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I wouldn’t donate a single cent to this guy.
Jesus did NOT establish a priesthood; SOME of his followers did long after his ascension.
Priesthood was exposed as ineffectual and rendered obsolete by Christ’s death and resurrection.
Roman Catholic priesthood has brought extremely serious problems to the Church, not least in the sexual violation of children and its deliberate concealment as a matter of canonical policy.
Anyone who funds this priesthood, in any way, is flying in the face of Christ’s intention at the Last Supper, and will invite further, and much more serious, criminal and moral breaches by priests.

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Poor MC. Jesus DID establish the priesthood which has done untold good in spite of the sins of some Judas priests. Thankfully, MC, you were weeded out of Maynooth before you were able to bring your own “extremely serious problems” to the priesthood. Poor dear. There there.

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12.11

😅

I don’t mean to laugh, but can you tell us, in all seriousness, what ‘untold good’ 😅 priesthood had done?

And while you are struggling here, can you tell us exactly how, when, and where Jesus himself established a priesthood?😅

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I referred to the NAC in my 2018 contributions…..they can still be found minus my name which was removed from all my comments ……but the NAC is well worth attention and study, I received many an invitation to lunch there….all very honourable but I constantly observed….the all American guy aspect was everywhere on display. One could see the predatory eye of many the Prelate in the student selection …..no longer pertains, the good looking in the USA are no longer presenting themselves to the RCC. One of the most honourable men ever ordained was a Todd Lajenais who now heads up a seminary in Detroit. I did not know him but he was my Licence class from 93 to 95….pity men like him were so few in Rome….talented and well-adjusted.
That most odious of Prelates in New York headed it up ( the NAC) at one stage , the Nulty promoter thanks to a Sister who taught the cigar smoking Prelate who found her way to Drogheda.
The reason I wish to comment here today is in reply to the negative comment that follows this: Watch Billy Connolly in the film The Man who sued God; when the Cardinal is put in the dock, he tells about the good that was/is done. Pat Buckley and many many many like him still within that sacerdotal life do much good.
I stand with every word I put on this Blog, every single word.
Billy Connolly, The Man who sued God.
I shall not be replying to any attack on me with this contribution.

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Anthony’s lawsuit is about a straight young man who was defamed and discriminated against because the gay rector and vice rector who feared he would expose the homosexual predation of minors and seminarians that has cost the US Catholic Church $4 billion. The rector and vice rector are doing what ex-Cardinal McCarrick did for decades especially to seminarians and young priests. Anthony and hundreds of other former seminarians who have had similar experiences are receiving NO support from the pope, cardinals, and others because studies show that over half of them are closeted gays, especially those from religious orders like the Jesuits and Franciscans where well over 70 percent are gay. Discrimination is wrong, and those who oppose any form of discrimination based on one’s sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation should support Anthony.

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Gorgia probably looks better than you 4.12pm which says a lot about you, we could write home about that. Have you ever heard of plastic surgery dear?

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6.53: William: You need to write more clearly, correctly and intelligently. All seems very confusing, lacking clarity and sense. What are you trying to communicate? Keep the answer to yourself.

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9:06 am – Come on now, that’s not a nice thing to say is it?
The poor lad has been treated absolutely awful, he’s been abused then set upon by a clique of them. I know only too well what that is like – and I nearly died because of what happened to me don’t forget.
Bishop Pat supported me through some really tough times.
—-
Anyhow, I hope this young man is given any justice the court finds is necessary and, just as important: hopefully this can help change the unhealthy culture which currently exists.
The Church should be a safe place for all and not just an exclusive group or persons who keep “quiet.”
If people dare speak up over abuse, they come down on them like a ton of bricks.
It’s bang out of order—it’s criminal!

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I would not expect this lawsuit to go anywhere, but it does send a message and a marker to seminaries, their staffs and the bishops who oversee them that there might just – might just – be a little problem in their back yards !
I remember the NAC in Rome from many years ago as a place that was super well organised and very well endowed, with students who adopted the clean cut preppy look in their early years, until such time as they could get in to clericals and, along with the Legionaries of Christ, look like the Stormtroopers of the Catholic Church. There was always something suppressed and slightly odd about the NAC students, very closed shop, which I now see as precursors of sublimated and frustrated sexuality. So, I am not surprised that there will have been quiet homosexual / gay activity going on at the NAC, even to this day.
In my day the issue of sexuality and its connection to celibacy was largely ignored, and if addressed it was with a simple, rather naive, catch all solution of muscular christianity and prayer. No attempt was made to look at it in a more nuanced and rational way. No surprise, therefore, that for most seminarians their sexuality and their celibacy were / are confused, unsure, lacking integration and maturity.
From my understanding today about seminary training as currently practiced, some attempt has been made to address the issue of human development and particularly the issues of sexuality and celibacy, but it strikes me that it is just a veneer occasioned as a means of looking like they are dealing with the issues seriously. In fact, the materials and the reports of how this is put in to practice in seminary training suggest that it is done haphazardly and insubstantially, largely by people who are not experts in these areas. So, the issues of sexuality and celibacy are still largely lacking sufficiently serious attention in the training and formation of seminarians.
There is, of course, one huge question that is not addressed by the Church. No matter how good the human development formation might be in a seminary (and generally it is pretty poor by and large), the fact is that for the vast majority of seminarians they are being required – yes, required – to mould themselves and shoe horn themselves in to a way of life and being that is not something to which they are naturally called or adapted. They undertake the obligation of celibacy, for the most part, as an unwelcome but necessary requirement in order to achieve a great goal, namely to be a priest. So, no matter how good the theory and training behind a seminary programme addressing these issues might be, it will never overcome the unnatural fit that is required of most seminarians in order to become priests. Thereby lies a huge, unresolved aspect of the seminarian’s and the future priest’s life that will fester away for decades, and will continue to be largely unresolved, and will be the source of so much pain, unhappiness and dysfunction.
Solutions ? If the present requirement continues, then seminarians who are not naturally called to celibacy or who are incapable of making the necessary adaptation to a life of celibacy should not be advanced to priesthood. However, then the seminaries would be denuded of prospective candidates and future priests. Or, the Church has a good, hard, long look at the issue of mandatory celibacy, recognising that continuing to refuse to recognise the difficult issues around it and the consequent collateral damage to the Church and the individuals concerned because of it, is just dolt headed obstinacy that has no grounds in any sane and sensible approach to the issue. My bet is that the Church will continue to do nothing. We will continue to require of seminarians the impossible, and they and the Church will continue to suffer the consequences, which are plain to see all around us in the lives of priests and the effect it has on the Church and the faithful. It is a very unhappy and dysfunctional picture. It could so easily be otherwise.

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This poor pansy whose not looking good at the end of her season is just out for money. Also she’s as straight as a crozier, it’s all about money. Any ejit who funds her is mad, a fool and his money is soon parted.

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It is very revealing that he is seeks $125 MILLION! and his plea includes compensation “FOR INTERFERENCE WITH PROSPECTIVE ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE!”
It’s a very lucrative business this religion, …..scam, bullshit, theft under false pretences.

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9-48am. That is a balanced, incisive and honest examination of the whole process of the present system and regime for the training and ‘formation’ of seminarians and the longer term problems post ordination. Excellent. I identify so much.

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9.48

What protracted and pretentious nonsense!

‘Human development formation’, ‘not naturally called to celibacy’, ‘advanced to priesthood’, and all the rest of these slick-sounding, pseudo-psychic buzzwords.

Stop gazing at the sky and start looking at the ground if you don’t want to keep stumbling over large obstacles you simply don’t want to see.

First, in no way biblically speaking can anyone describe himself as being ‘advanced to priesthood’. Given the now universal and truer picture of priesthood (one priests themselves sought, at great and criminal length, to hide for generations), no one could take seriously such a grand description of priesthood as an advancement of any kind, except perhaps in the perverse way a member of a criminal gang might consider an advancement his being allowed to coerce more busnesses in a protection racket.

Christ did not establish a priesthood. Your suggestions for reforming priesthood by tinkering at its edges will never succeed, because priesthood is a moral and spiritual retrograde step. Christ’s death and resurrection obviated the need for priesthood; in fact, it pointed up its atoning ineffectuality. Priesthood is not favoured by Heaven, becsuse it never did, and never will, work in terms of human salvation. It is a hindrance, and a spiritual danger. Do you never wonder why priesthood keeps failing the Church? Keeps dragging it through one historical moral gutter after another? Read Church history. You wont have to dig deeply to find confirmation of this.

And while you are doing so, check out the origin of celibacy. It isn’t Gospel-centred at all, since Christ did not actually state that some were celibate for the sake of the Kingdom. Those words were put in Jesus’ mouth by an early author to validate the understandable but wrong focus on celibacy in the early church. Some prominent figures here (including Peter and Paul) believed in the imminence of Christ’s second coming and made celibacy a personal priority, and, therefore, a seemingly higher state than marriage.

Even so, here, and in the Middle Ages, no one spoke of celibacy as you did: as a ‘calling’, because it was considered no such thing. It was not a requirement by God himself, nor was it even a requirement in the early church; it was, by some at the time, deemed more practical. That’s all. In the Middle Ages, it was considered practical too, but again only by some, for another reason entirely: to protect Church wealth from the demands of inheritance by the families of deceased priests. This concern so preoccupied these mammon-indifferent minds that the pope not only imposed celibacy on future priests, he dissolved, at a whim, the marriages of living priests.

So celibacy a ‘calling’? That is verbal tarting-up to make what is ugly and untrue seem morally legitimate. You’re a priest, aren’t you? It would figure. Or a supporter of priesthood? You are at least the latter. But you are no biblical scholar, nor are you familiar with Church history.

The problem is priesthood itself: it should not exist, nor was it meant by Christ to exist.

Jesus’ early followers did not remain obedient to him for very long after his death; these apples fell very far indeed from the tree. And the Church as a whole continues to pay a very high price for it.

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Protracted and pretentious nonsense ?.....Pot calling the kettle, it seems to me... !says:

Well @ 2:07, it looks like you know something too about protracted and pretentious nonsense ! It just seems to me that you fundamentally disagree with the notion of priesthood in any circumstances. However, accepting that priesthood and the clerical state is a given of the Catholic Church at the moment, it seems reasonable, not pretentious, for @9:48 to be raising the issues that he raises. N’est pas ?

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2.28
No, my post at 2.07 was not protracted: it was exactly the right length to refute the comment at 2.48. This, by contrast, WAS protracted, because the only, and brief, statement needed here was ‘priesthood is not just unnecessary, but against the will of Christ’. Instead, the author chose to meander through a broad meadow of absolute irrelevancy. This is what made it pretentious.
Being a ‘given’ does not render legitimacy on ANY thing in the RCC or elsewhere. And it certainly does not make it a subject for ‘reasonable’ discussion if the purpose of this is to morally affirm it by denying its historical provenance.

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2.07: Were you denied the life and grace of priesthood? You are dancing on the head of a needle. All of us, by baptism, share in the priesthood of CHRIST. We are, by God’s grace, called to live this priesthood in different ways. I do so as a Priest. I have absolute certainty that I share profoundly in Christ’s Priesthood but no greater than anyone else, just differently. I make no apology for my understanding. You, I believe, are confused.

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@3:52 and 2:7 – oh, calm down dear, and get over yourself ! Give us all break, please. Just asking….!

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And you @ 4:09: are not confused? …….we’ll leave the ‘fused’ bit out, ….you’re just “con-ned”; by the great scam that is your religion, plus your own delusional belief that your priesthood is some sort of valid mission overseen and endorsed by an imagined great Fairy in the Sky.
I occasionally check out this blog, ….when I fancy some light entertainment. And I regularly find it by reading some of the hilarious guff you deluded clerical caste come out with.
And the best bit is when one of you come out with the old “You’ll be sorry” line.

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Superb analysis! Studies show that no more than 50% of Catholic priests and bishops practice celibacy at any given time, and more than 90% of them have broken the vow of celibacy during their lifetime. While the majority of priests in Africa are straight with many of them having fathered children, the majority of priests, a higher percentage of bishops, and and even higher percentage of cardinals in the US and many other countries are closeted homosexuals.

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Pat you could set up a I Donate fund for the Maynooth Survivors. The fund could possibly be a method to gain financial help to pay for legal action against Maynooth Seminary Council.

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The Maynooth sex abuse was more extreme compared to the NAC. Maynooth abuse resorted to rape, BDSM Rituals, Drug abuse, psychological torture and grooming. So much pain.

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A constant theme on this blog is Maynooth and the unproven accusations.
So why is there not a full investigation and if there are or were abusers bring them before the Courts.
Please the constant Maynooth speculator bring the proof to the Police or better still contact by email vidim@cec.va. for the attention of Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi as he is responsible for all Seminaries World Wide

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11:21am
Why bother contacting him with all the shenanigans going on in seminaries world wide, he’s not doing a good job. Replace him with someone who will do something about it.

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Dolan is an ass. That ex seminarian also sounds and looks dodgy. Not the full shilling. A few slices short of a loaf, etc.

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12.08 What a silly comment. Try engaging your brain before such juvenile phrases are cast into what is meant to be a serious arena.

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3.15: Tiur comnent us even mire juvenile…look up the meaning of the word! Your comment is not exactly Shakesperean….or Wildean…or Ciceroesque…

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Dame Sadie Brogan set up a ‘subsistence’ fund for the poor monks. He has now set up one to have his organ restored which is hardly subsistence.
They’re all parasites.

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The reason Dame Sadie’s little empire struggles is because no sooner does a monk join there and start to show some promise, then Sadie gets rid of him because he is a threat to her. Sadie wants to be the queen bee all the time and can’t entertain the prospect of being superseded by someone else. Sad, really.

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People approached him with complaints, But why him?

All too often sly folk use naive people as conduits for their own gain. This chaps is one such naive person. This is a character trait that he should address. It is one I had to address in my 30’s after falling victim of a similar but non-sexual situation.

Perhaps God brought him to seminary to learn this. But unless he grasps it he will not be ready for God’s bigger plan.

Fighting the system prevents the learning because his focus remains outward.

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I have just watched that video and I am literally in hysterics peeing myself laughing.
She. Is. Hilarious! 😂 🤣
“You can put this in yow cup of tea and it’s supposedly good fow your complection.” “Why, these lilltle lillies, here, are sooo beautiful… Why, don’t ye think?”
She is an absolute screamer!

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Yes, the one in the garden is definitely an uphill gardener.

As for Antony, he has a very flat, robotic voice, as if he is on drugs. Is he?

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I don’t think auties should be priests, or politicians, for that matter. You should be able to empathise and have feelings for ithers if filling those roles.

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General feeling among Glasgow clergy is ANYONE BUT KEENAN !!!
Far,far too conservative. He will empty the pews and the baskets.

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5.59
The Glasgow clergy need to STOP gossiping among themselves as the man who informs Rome needs to know there views even anonymously but they need to act now or just keep gossiping
John Keenan has many recommending him. (sadly)
Archbishop Gugerotti 54 Parkside London SW19 5NE or nuntius@globalnet.co.uk.

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Curate,
I don’t know where you get the info about lots recommending John Keenan for Glasgow. I know from discussions with both clergy ( with the exception of 2) and prominent laity nobody wants him. Lots in the presbyterate remember his behaviour when his brother Joe left.
Seems most of his supporters are illumni of Glasgow Uni.

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10:30 pm – If he is autistic and he’s standing up to them, is it possible autistic people have something which non-autistic people don’t have?
Autism, or indeed any other learning differences, does not stop a person being a teacher or a pastor; they make for very caring and sincere priests, or whatever work they commit to.
It is evil people who home in and take advantage of people who are vulnerable which is more of a concern. Is it not?

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True. But he is not autistic, not suffering in any way from any mental or emotional disability. He is gifted intellectually and spiritually and well adjusted emotionally. He is heroically trying to correct a serious problem the Church has in formation.

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That poor guy is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. But he will make himself a rich through donations 🤑 my big hairy arse will it all go on lawyers.

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He has expended thousands of dollars fighting against corrupt church leaders who have destroyed the lives of thousands of fine young men. He needs financial support to pay for his lawyer who is going up against Fox & Rothschild, a large pro-LGBTQ law firm that employs over 950 lawyers.

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The “Maynooth survivors” is the fiction of a disturbed and obsessed individual, Sean. So don’t be annoying yourself or your toilet rolls about it. A disturbed guy, who has the serious hots for a couple of lads, fantasising about very naughty things being done to them against their wills. It a fetish fantasy. Simply that.

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Yes, he is a disturbed and disturbing individual whom you would never want to be alone in a room with. A frightening person, indeed.

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Lost my mobile for 4 days before it was found. Missed 5.30 pm mass offered by +Pat. It was strange without a mobile for 4 days until I realised its a form of attachment or addicted.

What happened to that chap Hourigan as he disappeared off this blog for ages. Just wondering that’s all.

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Dolan was Rector of the NAC when the English College had to close because of Legionnaires. Some VEC students were billeted to the NAC and two had a lot of night time in visitors from beefcake NAC seminarians. One of the VEC seminarians is now in an eminent position and a good friend of Abp Longley.

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