Priest criticizing cover-ups gets dumped

A Catholic priest sued the Newark archdiocese for $5 million yesterday, contending he was removed from his position as a school director in 2003 because he publicly criticized Catholic bishops for cover- ups related to the clergy sex scandal.

..another irony-free zone.

The federal lawsuit by the Rev. Robert Hoatson, which was filed in Manhattan, also named as defendants Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, the New York and Albany dioceses and four men from Hoatson's former religious order who he says molested him decades ago.

Hoatson, 54, still an archdiocese priest in good standing, has been a counselor for Catholic Charities since 2004, though he spends much of his time working with people who had accused priests of molesting them.

The suit claims the Newark Archdiocese violated New Jersey's "Whistleblower Act" after Hoatson criticized Catholic bishops on May 20, 2003, at a legislative forum in Albany, N.Y., on a bill to help abuse victims. Hoatson's comments came a year after the clergy sex scandal gained national attention with revelations that bishops had helped protect abusive priests.

[..]

Three days after making his comments, Hoatson received a letter of termination from his job at Our Lady of Good Counsel school in Newark.

[..]

The 36-page lawsuit recounts what Hoatson says is sexual abuse he suffered from other men in the 1970s and early 1980s, when he was part of a religious order called the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

[..]

Aretakis said the allegations show "the Catholic Church, after four years of being dragged through the mud with disclosures about the sexual abuse of children, still doesn't get it..."
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-2/11..

Well, if you can't see evidence for macro-evolution, you probably also have trouble seeing evidence of a bigger problem.