https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-bondi-catholic-church-investigations-20181004-story.html

Bondi urges victims to tell their stories as state investigates sexual abuse by priests

Attorney General Pam Bondi has launched a tip site that is part of a statewide investigation of past sex abuse by Catholic priests, she announced Thursday.

Bondi said she’s taking any and all stories about sexual abuse at the website — even if the incidents happened decades ago.

This new way to report clerical abuse was sparked when a Pennsylvania grand jury found that more than 1,000 children had been abused by 301 priests over a 70-year-period, while the higher authorities in the church covered it up, Bondi said.

Tips can be reported confidentially online at MyFloridaLegal.com/StopAbuse https://www.myfloridalegal.com/contact.nsf/stopabuse

“When (news about) the case aired, I could not sleep that night,” Bondi said, explaining the number of cases is likely to be higher in Florida because it’s a bigger state than Pennsylvania.

A Boca Raton priest who assisted at Ascension Catholic Church between 2007 and 2011 is among the 301 Pennsylvania priests accused in that investigation. Monsignor Thomas Benestad used holy water to rinse out the boy's mouth after having him perform oral sex on the priest, the report said.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/boca-raton/fl-reg-boca-priest-tied-to-pennsylvania-clergy-sex-scandal-20180815-story.html

The Archdiocese of Miami issued a statement in reaction to Bondi’s Thursday news conference applauding the investigation and pledging the cooperation it’s been extending to law enforcement officials for the past 16 years.

The archdiocese has its own hotline for any complaints, and has established safe environment” policies in keeping with a “zero tolerance” policy for such abuse, the archdiocese’s state said.

“When an allegation of sexual abuse of a child or a vulnerable adult by a member of the clergy or church personnel is received, it is immediately reported to the appropriate county state attorney’s office,” the statement from the archdiocese’s spokeswoman said.

The Diocese of Palm Beach did not issue a formal statement regarding Bondi’s announcement. One of its priests, in 2017, filed a libel suit against the diocese for retaliating against him for going to authorities about a sexual abuse case.

The Rev. John Gallagher said the diocese had branded him a liar for his role in the case involving a visiting priest who showed a teenager pornographic material. As a result, he could not find another flock to lead, according to his claim.

The case was dismissed in May.

The Rev. Jose Palimatttom, a visiting priest at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach, pled guilty to showing obscene material to a minor in 2015. He served six months in jail and was deported back to India.

Bondi said she was not necessarily looking for the Catholic church’s misdeeds, but all institutional abuses. Still, after the Pennsylvania news came out, she said that more than 15 people have come forward with stories about what happened to them in a similar setting, in Florida.

“Even if you live in another state now, even if years have passed, we want to hear from you,” she said.

Msgr. Thomas J. Benestad has been named as abuser and rapist by Our Very Own Survivor @StcharlesSeminary

Pizzagate related due to involvement of Child Sexual Abuse by Priests and crimes being covered up by the Roman Catholic Church