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Sullivan County District Attorney Stephen F. Lungen says the Archdiocese of New York deliberately made it difficult for his office to track down an accused pedophile priest who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution.  Lungen said yesterday the recent sex scandal rekindled memories of a case from 1991, when the late John Cardinal O’Connor headed the Archdiocese of New York.  The case involved Rev. Juan Bazalar, then 43, who was charged with sodomizing a 14 year old altar boy in upstate Monticello, fled while on bail.  The priest was busted

The survivors of abuse by priests know how to spot potential child molesting priests.  The names are listed in the Official Catholic Directory and they see their names next to harmless phrases like Absent on Leave, or Released from Diocesan Assignment.  There are 63 priests listed that way in the 2000 version of the book by the Brooklyn Diocese.  They all may not be abusers, but Bishop Thomas Daily, who has been reluctant to fully disclose the names and whereabouts of priests in his diocese accused of abusing children, should

With Edward Cardinal Egan’s move to give prosecutors the names of priests accused of molesting kids, some district attorneys yesterday accused him of creating a smoke screen, saying the files he turned over don’t cover all the likely cases in the New York Archdiocese.  The DAs also expressed concern over Egan’s new sex-abuse policy that requires victims to put their allegations in writing, a practice seasoned investigators say could hamper prosecution.  The files don’t cover priests who work in the archdiocese but are employed by religious orders.

(New York)

Edward Cardinal Egan finally named the names of accused child-molester priests, yet Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily is still refusing to cooperate.  This criminal silence continues even though sources say the Queens and Brooklyn district attorneys are communicating quietly with Daily’s lieutenants, which is a nice way of saying authorities are breathing down his eminence’s neck.  An unlikely supporter of the DA’s cause is the Rev. Gary Hayes, who runs a small church in Kentucky.  Hayes knows first-hand how dangerous Daily’s hide-and-seek game can be.  In the early ’70s when Hayes

The Archdiocese of New York said yesterday that it gave Manhattan prosecutors a list of priests accused of sexual misconduct with minors in the past 40 years.  The archdiocese also released a new policy for handling such allegations against its priests.  The policy calls for accusations of misconduct to be put in writing; for the priest to be interviewed by church officials and to respond in writing; and for a committee of clergy and lay experts to determine whether the allegations should be sent to law enforcement officials.

(New York)

Newsday/Steve Wick

Rev. Angelo Ditta was removed from active duty just two weeks after Bishop William Murphy saidthere were no credible allegations of sexual abuse against any active priest on Long Island. Thediocese has removed Ditta based on a complaint it has been aware of since 1997. Ditta moved to St.Margaret of Scotland in Selden and Matthew Mosher, who was molested by him beginning when he was 9,would visit Ditta and serve Mass with him.

Last week, the diocese also removed the Rev. Eugene Vollmer, an associate pastor at St. James inSeaford,