Priest personnel files released in California court case reveal alleged abuser in N.J., The $115,000 Question - McHugh book

Priest personnel files released in California court case reveal alleged abuser in N.J.
Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
August 01, 2013

A court-ordered release of personnel files involving religious-order clergy members in California has revealed the name of another New Jersey priest accused of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Joseph Di Peri, now deceased, was removed from ministry in New Jersey in 2003 after the Archdiocese of Newark learned he had been credibly accused of molesting a teenage boy in the late 1970s at Chaminade College Preparatory High School in West Hills, Calif....

"We urge New Jersey Catholic officials to come clean about proven, admitted and credibly accused child molester clerics who live or work in the state, regardless of where they are, where they molested and which Catholic entity signs their paychecks," Clohessy added. "Secrecy around sex offenders protects sex offenders. Openness about child molesters protects children."....

"Once again, it appears that an abusive priest was allowed to leave the East Coast under the guise of health issues to serve on the West Coast," Hoatson said. "In short order, the priest was engaged in the sexual abuse of a minor in Los Angeles." http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/priest_personnel_files_released_in_california_court_case_reveal_alleged_abuser_in_nj.html

The $115,000 Question
July 25th, 2013

A loyal reader of this site pointed our attention to a curious entry in the tax returns filed by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, the organization spent $63,500 on something identified only as “book project.” They spent $52,227 more the next year. Their 2006 tax return lists “the Sturgis Group” as “authors” of the book they are funding. (See p. 10 of this document.) But there was never a book published after this date with the FMSF or the Sturgis Group listed as the author. Indeed, there was never even an announcement in the FMSF Newsletter informing its members that a book they spent more than $100,000 on had been published. One wonders why....

The preface also acknowledges a “yearlong collaboration” whereby McHugh’s daughter Clare “helped [him] put down an accessible draft.” Dr. McHugh mentions her “devotion,” but there is no mention of what happened behind-the-scenes.... http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2013/07/25/the-115000-question/