Media Statements

Allegations against a popular Chicago priest who has been accused twice of child sexual abuse took a unique turn this week as parish administrators publicly announced that they will withhold monthly payments to the local archdiocese until the investigation into the accused cleric is completed. This is a clear attempt to prematurely end an investigation by bargaining with what the institutional Catholic Church seems to us to hold most dear – its money.

A month after two victims accused a prominent Catholic priest in Chicago of childhood sexual abuse, an Illinois state senator is using her office to cast doubt on these survivors and to demand the reinstatement of the cleric.

Leaders from SNAP in the Bay Area have compiled data showing that at least 161 abusive clerics have worked and lived in the Diocese of Oakland. We are calling on Diocesan officials to update their current list and to be clearer with the Bay Area’s Catholic community about the exposure children and the vulnerable have had to these men.

Despite having been banned from ministry for sexual abuse by a CA bishop in 2014, a Chicago-area Catholic priest was allowed to keep working in various places in Illinois, even after his religious superiors had been made aware of the allegations against him. This is exactly the kind of secrecy and arrogance that has allowed the Church's sexual abuse scandal to continue unabated through to the present day.

A little more than a year ago, AB 218 was signed into law in California, opening a three-year “window to justice” that would revive claims that had been barred by the state’s archaic and predator-friendly statute of limitations laws. Since that bill went into effect, we have seen hundreds of new survivors come forward, exposing uncomfortable truths about hidden perpetrators and their enablers in California. To us, there is no question that this law is providing a path towards justice, healing, and prevention.

At a press conference this afternoon, embattled Msgr. Craig Harrison announced that he is resigning from the priesthood. We hope that this decision will comfort the multiple accusers who have come forward and that Catholic officials in Fresno will release the results of their internal investigation soon.

Yet another abuse inquiry in yet another country has revealed shocking details about the abuse and depravity that children were subjected to at a place that was supposed to educate, love, and care for them. As horrifying as this report is, we are not surprised.

A Catholic priest from the Diocese of Gaylord has stepped aside after he was accused of “sexual misconduct” with an adult woman. We hope that this victim is getting the support they need and we honor her courage in coming forward with her story.

Gene Thomas Gomulka, Clerical Abuse Victims Advocate

619-437-7116 • 619-203-8911 • [email protected]

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Crisis Hits America’s Seminary at the Vatican and New York Archdiocese

Shocking Clerical Sexual Misconduct and Cover-Up Exposed in Major Lawsuit

NEW YORK, February 16, 2021 An explosive Complaint was filed in a lawsuit on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 by Manhattan attorney Raymond W. Belair of Belair & Associates P. C. in New York State Supreme Court on behalf of former seminarian Anthony Gorgia. The lawsuit names New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan; the Archdiocese of New York; the Pontifical North American College (NAC), the U.S. seminary in Vatican City; the NAC rector, Illinois-priest Father Peter Harman; the NAC vice-rector, Washington D.C.- priest Father Adam Park; and others as shocking allegations of clerical misconduct and cover-up are revealed in graphic detail.

A former Pennsylvania Catholic priest who was named as an abuser in the 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury report has been sentenced to five years probation for his crimes. While we would have hoped for a stronger sentence to better protect children, we are happy that yet another perpetrator has been identified and convicted thanks to the work of secular law enforcement professionals.