A Catholic priest told an altar boy at his church that God approves of certain same-sex relationships between children and adults before violating him repeatedly, according to a lawsuit.
Per the complaint, father George Zina is accused of openly grooming a nine-year-old boy before spending the next six years molesting him in a variety of different locations, including in confession booths.
The anonymous plaintiff who brought the lawsuit claims the alleged abuse from Zina occurred while he was a priest from 2001 to 2007 at two different churches in Orlando, Florida.
The suit, filed last month in Orange County, names the Diocese of Orlando, Holy Family Catholic Church Orlando Inc. and St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church as defendants.
Also a defendant in the suit is the Eparchy of Saint Maron, which told Daily Mail that Zina has denied all the allegations against him.
Jenny Rossman, an attorney with Herman Law, said that the alleged abuse against her client began when he was working as an altar server under Zina at Holy Family Catholic Church.
‘This is a lawsuit that is against the institutions We’re alleging that they were negligent. They failed to protect our client, John Doe, who was a child, a parishioner at the churches, and an altar server. They failed to protect him from who he has alleged sexually abused him, Father Zina,’ Rossman said in a statement to WSET that addressed the complaint.
‘They knew, or they should have known, that Father Zina was unsafe,’ she added.
The suit alleges that Zina was able to get close to the plaintiff’s family because he also spoke Italian.
They were so close that the family eventually followed Zina to a new church, St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church, where Rossman said the alleged abuse continued.
Once the plaintiff was an altar server, Zina began giving him special attention in the form of shoulder massages and calling him ‘my best boy’, the suit claimed.
This ‘grooming behavior’ was done in the presence of other priests and employees of both churches, per the complaint.
‘He was taken places alone with Father Zina that would’ve been visible to others within the church, where he was abused… That special attention, it should have raised a red flag to those within the church who saw the special attention,’ Rossman said.
At one point, Zina allegedly told the boy that ‘God chooses one altar server to be with the priest in a same-sex relationship that God approves of and that he and Plaintiff would eventually live together’, the lawsuit said.
Zina was said to have forced himself on the boy in confession rooms, dressing rooms, a recreation hall, a bathroom, the secretary’s office and in Zina’s car, according to the suit.
‘He was told things to keep his compliance and his silence, like, this one is a bit disturbing, but that “God blessed” their “relationship,”‘ Rossman said.
‘For a kid to hear these things from his priest while he was a parishioner at the church, and the church plays a very major role in his life and his family’s life, is going to have lifelong effects,’ she added.
The lawsuit said Zina was placed on leave from 2009 to 2010 before he was relocated to a Catholic Church in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 2022, he began his priesthood at St. Elias Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia.
The Eparchy of Saint Maron, which oversees all East Coast Maronite Catholic Churches, including St. Elias, said that since no criminal charges have been filed against Zina, it has decided to keep him as a priest.
‘The Eparchy has never received a complaint of this nature against Father Zina in his more than 38 years of priestly ministry,’ a statement read.
Zina did not respond to a request for comment from Daily Mail.
While Zina hasn’t been charged, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Daily Mail that their sex crimes detectives conducted an investigation into the sexual abuse claims months before the lawsuit was filed.
‘Our detectives sent the case packet to the State Attorney’s Office in February with recommended charges of Sexual Battery on a Child Under 12 and Sexual Battery with a Child 12-18,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
‘Now the State Attorney’s Office must decide whether they will charge the suspect in this case. The victim is now an adult and gave very compelling testimony to our detectives. At this time, we have no indication that charges have been filed by the SAO,’ the statement continued.
The Ninth District State Attorney’s Office told Daily Mail that it ‘received these charges from law enforcement, and they are under review by our prosecutors’.