Priest sues diocese; alleges persecution for reporting abuse

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Roman Catholic priest filed suit Wednesday against his former diocese, saying the bishop pushed him aside and lied about him because he called law enforcement and cooperated with the investigation after another priest showed child pornography to a teenage boy.

The Rev. John Gallagher said Bishop Gerald Barbarito of the Palm Beach Diocese forced him from the church where he worked and publicly called him a liar after he refused to cover up for the other priest.

Joseph Palimattom was convicted of showing obscene material to a minor, spent six months in jail and was deported home to India.

Gallagher said his case shows the church has not reformed as promised after it became public knowledge church leaders had covered up sexual abuse by priests for decades around the world.

"Any priest could be in this situation," Gallagher said. "Any priest in this situation should know that if it happened to them, they will not get the support of the church. You will be ostracized."

The lawsuit does not seek a specific amount, but Gallagher's lawyer, Ted Babbitt, said he will seek enough to cover Gallagher's lost salary and benefits plus punitive damages for his lost reputation.

The diocese declined specific comment on the lawsuit but pointed to Barbarito's previous denials of Gallagher's allegations. In those statements, made last year after Gallagher went public with his accusation, Barbarito said he and other church officials acted appropriately when Gallagher informed them of Palimattom's crime.

"We not only immediately reported the incident to the police and state attorney, but cooperated as fully in the investigation as we could," Barbarito said in a statement read in churches throughout the diocese. "Father Gallagher's harmful assertions are an embarrassment to my brother priests as well as to me."

Gallagher, 49 and a priest since 1992, came to the United States from his native Northern Ireland in 2000 and became head priest at Holy Name of Jesus in West Palm Beach in April 2014.

That following December, Palimattom arrived from India and was assigned to be Gallagher's assistant. According to the lawsuit, church officials in India did not tell Gallagher that Palimattom previously had been accused of sexually abusing children.

Gallagher in the lawsuit said on Jan. 5, 2015, three weeks after Palimattom's arrival, a 14-year-old boy complained Palimattom had shown him sexually explicit photographs of naked boys who were about 6 years old.

Gallagher said he immediately confronted Palimattom, who admitted showing the photographs to the teen. The conversation was witnessed by a retired Palm Beach County sheriff's detective and his wife, the church's office manager.

"His answer was, 'I've done this before; I have gone to confession, been told to say my prayers and everything will be OK,'" Gallagher said Wednesday.

Gallagher said he and the retired detective contacted the state's attorney's office and were told the teen's father already had reported Palimattom, who was arrested the next day.

He said he then called the diocese and was told the normal procedure would be to send Palimattom home to India. He said he also was told not to offer too much information to investigators, but he said he recounted his conversation with Palimattom to detectives. He also turned over security video showing the conversation.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office issued two commendation letters to Gallagher thanking him for his assistance. Chief Deputy Michael Gauger and Detective Debi Phillips each wrote in previous investigations of sexual abuse the local church had not cooperated, so they were pleased by how helpful Gallagher had been. Two previous bishops of the diocese resigned after admitting to sexually abusing boys before arriving in Florida.

Gallagher said he then wrote letters to high-ranking Catholic officials, saying Palm Beach Diocese officials had tried to cover up the Palimattom case. He said Barbarito retaliated by driving him from Holy Name of Jesus by turning the Spanish-speaking portion of the parish against him. He said that in May 2015 when he was hospitalized for a possible heart attack, Barbarito showed up in his room and berated him, accusing him of faking. He said that when he was released, he found that he had been locked out of the parish.

After some Holy Name of Jesus parishioners publicly protested his dismissal, Barbarito had diocese priests read a statement in January 2016 at all Masses saying Gallagher was spreading falsehoods. On a Facebook page, one diocese official wrote Gallagher "is blatantly lying and in need of professional help as well as our prayers and mercy." Similar statements were made to local news media.

Gallagher said Wednesday that he is unsure if he wants to remain a priest.

"Why would I ever trust them again?" he asked.