Friends of Rudy: he has Close ties to pedophile priest.

[illinoisprogressive]

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani has close ties to a Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys and who also was the lawyer for a now-closed Whitinsville counseling house for troubled priests that has been described as the center of a pedophile sex ring.

Monsignor Alan J. Placa, who works for Mr. Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, was legal adviser in the 1980s to the House of Affirmation, where priests accused of sexual abuse were sent for psychotherapy and other counseling services. The center closed in 1987 amid a financial scandal.

Monsignor Placa, who while an active priest arranged the annulment of Mr. Giuliani’s first marriage, baptized his two children and officiated at the funeral of his mother, is a childhood friend of Mr. Giuliani and they both attended Manhattanville College.

He was stripped of his duties as a priest, but not defrocked, after Newsday, a Long Island newspaper, published a story in 2002 about young men who alleged that Monsignor Placa abused them in the 1970s. He has been on administrative leave since and has worked for Mr. Giuliani for the past five years. Read on…

Rudy suuuuuure knows how to pick ‘em…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

[saltpoint]

1. If anybody wants to look at a sharp analysis of Giuliani, the August 07

HARPER'S magazine has a cover story on him by Kevin Baker.

It is a devastating portrait of a cruel, thick-headed, very possibly racist man. Giuliani does NOT come off looking very good at all.

The piece is called "A Fate Worse Than Bush." Recommended reading.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/0081631

[illinoisprogressive]

2. he is going to implode by dent of his own arrogance

[CoffeeCat]

3. Why on Earth would anyone...

...HIRE, do business with and consort with a serial pedophile?

Not only was this priest accused of molesting children, he also defended priests who were running a
pedophile ring?

There is something really, really rotten when it comes to high-level Republicans and their pedophile
connects. There are so many prominent Republicans and Republican fund-raisers who have been accused
of and/or convicted of molesting children.

I'm sorry, but you don't surround yourself with pedophiles, unless you are fine with what they do.

Rudy has two children who don't speak with him...does anyone know why?

This pedophile stuff connected to so many Republicans is horrendously disturbing.

[Kagemusha]

4. The priest is a personal friend of Giuliani's.

I read that in a Salon story. I don't have a link handy. I was going to give some benefit of the doubt until reading about the part re: the priest defending other molesters... and that the church won't take him back from his leave of absence. Given the history of the church defending molesting priests, including the defending this man himself did, for the church not to take him back strikes me as highly unusual. Also, it seems to be that the guy only got away with things because of statute of limitations issues, not because the charges were found to be false. Taken together, it's pretty smelly.

But Giuliani gave the guy a soft landing because of a personal friendship of long standing. So that is to answer, why on earth would anyone consort with such a person? Because the person is a friend rather than a stranger.

Given the whole Kerik drama, I wouldn't say Giuliani has the best taste in personnel to begin with.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I understand that this guy is a friend...

...of Guiliani's.

However, if a friend of yours molested children or was a serial
killer, wouldn't that person then be excluded from your circle of friends?

If I found out that a friend of mine molested innocent children,
I can tell you this--I would no longer be their friend and I
certainly wouldn't hire them to work for my consulting company.

"You molest kids? Great! Come work for me! Of course we're still
friends!".

THAT would truly be bizarre.

[Kagemusha]

6. Maybe he thinks the priest's falsely accused.

People convince themselves of all sorts of wild things for friends. That's why molesters get away with so much as it is.