Roanoke priest accused in Florida lawsuit of sexual abuse
A Roanoke priest has been accused in a Florida lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy in the early 2000s. Father George Zina is currently a priest at St. Elias Catholic Church Maronite Center in Roanoke.
The lawsuit is seeking $10 million in damages. Zina is not a defendant in the lawsuit. It accuses the Diocese and churches of negligence for failing to prevent the alleged sexual abuse.
“We believe that the Diocese and these churches were negligent. Meaning that they knew or should’ve known that Zina was unsafe and they failed to protect our client, who was a parishioner and a child,” said Jenny Rossman, trial attorney for Herman Law, which is representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“Zina even went so far as to tell him, when he was a child, that God blessed Zina to be in a same-sex relationship with an altar boy. You know he’s a kid, and this is somebody that his family trusted,” said Rossman. This claim is also stated in the lawsuit.
https://www.wdbj7.com/2025/07/17/roanoke...a-lawsuit/
A Roanoke priest has been accused in a Florida lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy in the early 2000s. Father George Zina is currently a priest at St. Elias Catholic Church Maronite Center in Roanoke.
The lawsuit is seeking $10 million in damages. Zina is not a defendant in the lawsuit. It accuses the Diocese and churches of negligence for failing to prevent the alleged sexual abuse.
“We believe that the Diocese and these churches were negligent. Meaning that they knew or should’ve known that Zina was unsafe and they failed to protect our client, who was a parishioner and a child,” said Jenny Rossman, trial attorney for Herman Law, which is representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
“Zina even went so far as to tell him, when he was a child, that God blessed Zina to be in a same-sex relationship with an altar boy. You know he’s a kid, and this is somebody that his family trusted,” said Rossman. This claim is also stated in the lawsuit.
https://www.wdbj7.com/2025/07/17/roanoke...a-lawsuit/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
