15
August
FRIAR FACES ALLEGATIONS (Will remain a priest but loses right to minister publicly)
Gabriel Massaro, a 62 year old popular Capuchin Friar who spent the past two decades preaching at retreats in local parishes, can no longer function publicly as a priest because of allegations that he molested several boys, including one from Long Island and another from Queens. However, he will remain a priest because he is a member of a religious order, an offshoot of the Franciscans. Order priests, whose superiors report directly to Rome, do not come under the zero tolerance policies adopted by the nation’s Catholic bishops in June.