After the 2002 passage of U.S. Church norms designed to address clergy sexual abuse - most especially the "Dallas Charter" - Duffell was among the most outspoken clerical critics of the Church's policy.
The priest was a co-founder of Voices of the Ordained, a group of New York-area priests who raised concerns about the Charter.
"Ordained ministers of the gospel are a group very much at risk at the moment. Given the norms approved in Dallas, anyone can make any kind of accusation against us and we're dead meat," Duffell told the Washington Post in 2002.
In May 2002, Duffell criticized the initial suspension of Charles M. Kavanagh, an eventually laicized priest who was removed from ministry that month for allegations that he sexually abused a high school seminarian in the 1970s.
"You almost hope the punishment could be leveled after the facts were determined," Duffell told the New York Times.
"According to the cardinal, this is the policy that has to be in effect because this is what the people want. I wonder if that's really true. Isn't somebody innocent until proven guilty?"
The priest was a technical adviser for 2000 film "Keeping the Faith," about a priest and a rabbi in love with the same woman, a childhood friend.
Though Dolan's July 1 letter referred to Duffell as retired, the priest was reappointed as Blessed Sacrament's administrator for a one-year period in October 2018.
Duffell is listed as the parish pastor on the website of Blessed Sacrament Parish and in the parish's July 7 bulletin. He was appointed administrator of the parish in 2014, according to archdiocesan records.
Dolan noted that retired auxiliary Bishop Gerald Walsh would serve as the parish administrator until a new pastor could be appointed.
This story is developing, and was updated July 6.
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