Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Honduras · 2015

Honduras: US missionary priest convicted of abusing boys at shelters his ministry funded

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest, principal donor and missionary to the shelters where the victims lived

Organization

Honduras Interfaith Ministries, Pro Niño shelters

Spiritual nexus

The victims were at-risk children resident in shelters that the defendant's religious ministry funded and visited; his combined standing as priest, missionary and principal donor is what gave him unsupervised access to them.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2015-09-22 · federal jury conviction and sentence; affirmed on appeal

    United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania (Johnstown); Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Joseph Maurizio Jr., a priest of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the largest donor to Honduras Interfaith Ministries, was convicted by a federal jury of child sex tourism offences for abusing two boys at the Pro Niño shelters in Honduras during repeated missionary trips between 2004 and 2009. He was sentenced to nearly 17 years with lifetime supervised release and restitution. The Third Circuit affirmed the conviction in July 2017.

Appellate history

  1. 2017-07-01 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • religious-mission access to at-risk children in residential shelters
  • financial power over the institution housing the victims

Primary record

Sources

official prosecuting authority conviction release U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 'Pennsylvania priest sentenced to over 16 years following ICE child sex tourism probe'.

Federal law-enforcement record of the conviction, sentence and the Honduran shelter setting.

national newspaper court reporting appellate disposition 'EEUU: Ratifican condena de cura por abuso niños hondureños', El Heraldo (Honduras), 2017.

Honduran paper of record reporting the Third Circuit's affirmance of the conviction.

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