A defrocked New York priest accused of sexually abusing a boy runs a charity that provides scholarships to Catholic schools for underprivileged children, according to public records.
Who is John J Voglio?
John J. Voglio, 65, a New York priest previously accused of sexually abusing a minor, is now the president of Mary F. Clancy Charities.
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Mary F Clancy Charities was founded in 2000 by another priest, John Harrington, who was also accused of sexually abusing a minor, according to the Archdiocese of New York.
Voglio often interacts with children and teenagers who participate in charity events, said a member of the organisation’s board of directors, reported NBC News.
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“He’s very good with the kids. They like him very much,” Madelaine Cavegn said.
Voglio doesn’t mention on the charity’s website that he is a former priest. He has never been charged with a crime so was never required to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts, New York, or New Hampshire, all places where he once worked as a priest or brother.
Cavegn said Voglio was a devoted leader of the charity. “He’s like a missionary. He is very involved. Before we give out any grants, he conducts all the interviews with the schools,” she said.
John Crapanzano, another director on the board said, “the charity is very active” and Voglio “is very much involved in the day-to-day operations.”
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Voglio should not be running this kind of charity, according to David Clohessy, sex abuse victims advocate at the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The Archdiocese of New York gave no explanation for Voglio’s removal from the priesthood in its “List of Archdiocesan Clergy Credibly Accused of Sexual Abuse,” which was first published in 2019 and updated at least once in recent years. He had been ordained in 1987.
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In 2002, a Massachusetts man informed New Hampshire investigators that Voglio had molested him 20 years earlier at a Salesian Brothers summer camp in that state. The accuser said he was 12 when the abuse occurred in 1982, as per a report made by Paul Brodeur, a former investigator with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
According to the report, Voglio was a Salesian Brother at the time and working as a camp counselor.
