September 17, 201115 yr Active Members The Reverend Jesus Silva has died at the age of 78. The NY Times reports: "Father Silva was still a seminarian in 1956 when he came to the aid of 15 boys who had been orphaned or abandoned and found refuge for them in his mother’s house. Inspired by the 1938 film “Boys Town,” which he had seen as a child, and by a distinctly Marxist interpretation of the Gospels, he established the Ciudad de los Muchachos, or Boys Town, on property outside Ourense purchased for him by his brother, a lawyer." In the 70's, the Spanish Boys Town circus toured the world, including above at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. More than 50,000 boys passed through Benposta, which served as a model for similar projects in Belgium, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mozambique and the Dominican Republic. In this day and age, it is surprising that no accusations of impropriety survive Fr. Silva, given how rampant was priest molestation over the past 50 years. By all accounts the Reverend lived a modest life, using the circus as a means of raising funds to support the children at his Boys town. Other Boys Towns, such as in Omaha, Nebraska, suffered pedophile scandals. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/world/europe/jesus-silva-priest-who-founded-a-boys-town-dies-at-78.html?ref=obituaries http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/8758373/Father-Jesus-Silva.html
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