The folks over at Salon have unearthed some interesting stuff about one of the people on Rudy Giuliani’s staff: a monsignor accused of child sex abuse:

Giuliani employs his childhood friend Monsignor Alan Placa as a consultant at Giuliani Partners despite a 2003 Suffolk County, N.Y., grand jury report that accuses Placa of sexually abusing children, as well as helping cover up the sexual abuse of children by other priests. Placa, who was part of a three-person team that handled allegations of abuse by clergy for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, is referred to as Priest F in the grand jury report. The report summarizes the testimony of multiple alleged victims of Priest F, and then notes, “Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in the development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.”

Am I the only one who finds this a little bit, well, odd?

God knows, a lot of accused priests are innocent; I know a few like that myself. But Giuliani is in a tight spot these days with a number of bishops, and having a member of the clergy on his staff doesn’t seem to be clarifying his thinking on issues of great importance to the Church. And having someone on his staff who’s been accused of sex with minors doesn’t help the whole image thing, either.

I have to wonder just what the good monsignor is advising Rudy about matters of faith and religion — and what some of the bishops who are irked at Giuliani (and other pro-choice Catholic pols) think of this development.