Pope Accepts Resignation of Florida Bishop Who Admitted Abusing Boy
Pope John Paul II on Wednesday accepted the resignation of a Florida bishop who admitted molesting a teenager more than two decades ago.
Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell, 63, of the diocese of Palm Beach, announced his resignation Friday after admitting that he touched a former student at a St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Missouri.
The student, Christopher Dixon, now 40, said they touched inappropriately in bed after he sought counseling from O’Connell in the late 1970s. O’Connell was rector at the time.
The Vatican’s daily bulletin said the pope accepted the resignation.
Father Seamus Murtagh was named by the Vatican to oversee the diocese until a successor is selected by the pope, diocese spokesman Sam Barbaro said. Murtagh had served as vicar general under O’Connell.
The Palm Beach case came to light amid a major sex abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese, where a former priest, John J. Geoghan, has been accused by 130 people of molesting them.
Geoghan is serving a nine- to 10-year prison sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy, and faces another criminal trial.
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