Letter to Bishops O'Malley,
Bootkoski, and DiMarzo

May 24, 2004

Most Reverend Sean P. O'Malley, OFMCap
2121 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02135-3193

Most Reverend Paul G. Bootkoski
P.O. Box 191
Metuchen, NJ 08840

Most Reverend Nicholas A. DiMarzio
P.O. Box C
Brooklyn, NY 11202

Dear Bishops,

The St. Louis Archdiocese has recently stated in their weekly diocesan newspaper that anyone who might have been harmed by Father Romano Ferraro should call the vicar general or the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office.

Father Ferraro, a suspended priest of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Diocese, once lived in St. Louis, as well as having worked in the Brooklyn and Metuchen, NJ, Dioceses. Rev. Ferraro admits he is a "predator pedophile" who left a trail of sexually abused, mostly prepubescent, boys in the parishes he served from New York to St. Louis and as Navy chaplain.

Fr. Ferraro was sentenced on May 20, 2004 to life imprisonment for sexually abusing a child in Billerica, Massachusetts, a town located within the Archdiocese of Boston. Fr. Ferraro also faces at least two civil molestation lawsuits in St. Louis, for victimizing a boy at St. Joan of Arc parish in the early 1980's.

We strongly urge you, as church leaders in the areas where Fr. Ferraro ministered to the faithful and their children, to follow the lead of St. Louis and make the same appeal for victims to come forward and report their abuse to law enforcement. Announcements should be made not only in the diocesan newspaper, but in parish bulletins and from the pulpit during Sunday Masses in the parishes in and around where Fr. Ferraro worked and
lived. At the very least, such notification needs to be made in the Archdiocese of Boston, Diocese of Metuchen, and Diocese of Brooklyn. The announcements should encourage anyone who witnessed, suspected or experienced abuse to contact law enforcement, not church officials.

The silent victims who have not yet come forward deserve to know that Fr. Ferraro has harmed others and they are not alone. They need to be encouraged to step forward and receive the help and healing they so rightly deserve.

You can help victims and send a clear message that you will not tolerate secrecy when a known abuser has worked in your diocese. You will be putting anyone who harms a child on notice that you will take decisive action and, thereby, help to protect children.

Sincerely,

David Clohessy of St. Louis, MO, SNAP National Director
David Cerulli of New York, NY, SNAP Board Member
Ben "Buddy" Cotton of New Jersey, State Director
William Gately of Boston, MA, SNAP Local Leader