A priest who led parishes in Queens and Brooklyn has been formally defrocked following an investigation into child sexual-abuse claims dating back to the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Father Michael McHugh, 70, a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Astoria, will have his name added to the Diocese of Brooklyn\u2019s List of Credibly Accused Priests.<\/p>\n
McHugh has been permanently barred from all ministerial duties, including conducting Mass in public, and can no longer live in church housing, according to a statement from the diocese.<\/p>\n
Claims against Father Michael McHugh were deemed credible.<\/p>\n
The allegations first came to light in late March.<\/p>\n
The probe, the diocese explained, substantiated the allegations made against McHugh. <\/p>\n
Bishop Robert Brennan informed parishioners of the decision to defrock McHugh. <\/p>\n
McHugh most recently served the parish at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Astoria. Google Maps<\/p>\n
The priest was ordained on May 17, 1980, and was assigned over the years to Holy Cross and Our Lady of Refuge, both in Flatbush; St. Agatha\u2019s, Our Lady of the Presentation and Blessed Sacrament in Jackson Heights; Most Precious Blood in Long Island City; St. Jude Shrine, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Annunciation in Williamsburg; St. Sebastian in Woodside; Corpus Christi in Morningside Heights; and St. Brendan\u2019s in the Norwood section of the Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis news is disturbing and confusing to many,\u201d Bishop Brennan wrote to Our Lady of Mount Carmel\u2019s parish community. \u201cOften, just having a place to speak about such matters is a beginning step to addressing the strong impact such news can have.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s back to civilian life for McHugh. Our Lady of Mount Carmel \u2013 Astoria\/ Facebook<\/p>\n
McHugh was ordained in 1980. Alex Ayala\/ Facebook<\/p>\n
The diocese statement reaffirmed its commitment to protecting children: \u201cThe Diocese of Brooklyn takes all allegations of sexual misconduct with minors seriously and has instituted significant programs to prevent sexual abuse and protect children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone who has been the victim of clergy sexual abuse is encouraged to report it to law enforcement or to the toll-free reporting line, which is 1-888-634-4499.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A priest who led parishes in Queens and Brooklyn has been formally defrocked following an investigation into child…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,21606,1121,20020,21607,21608,21609,5248,21610,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,21611,4413,10410,5305,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,21612,21613],"class_list":{"0":"post-23919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-astoria","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-child-abuse","12":"tag-flatbush","13":"tag-jackson-heights","14":"tag-long-island-city","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-morningside-heights","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkcity","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-priests","24":"tag-queens","25":"tag-sexual-abuse","26":"tag-the-bronx","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-us-news","33":"tag-usa","34":"tag-williamsburg","35":"tag-woodside"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114765465449339231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}