For tomorrow’s event in Honolulu …
Fmr top Catholic official accused of abuse
Victim speaks publicly for the first time
He says he was 7 when ex-Honolulu bishop molested him
New lawsuit is one of more than two dozen filed since 2012
WHAT:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a news conference, a third alleged child sexual abuse victim of a now-deceased Honolulu Catholic bishop will speak publicly about his abuse for the first time. He’ll discuss why he’s filing a civil abuse and cover up lawsuit, and
–how he tried to warn neighbors and reach out to other survivors,
–how church officials flew to his home and tried to silence him, and
–how he hopes to encourage other survivors to reach out, and get help.
WHEN:
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 11 am
WHERE:
7 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 400 in Honolulu
WHO:
The alleged victim and another abuse victim who is a leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPNetwork.org), the nation’s largest support group for men and women sexually abused as children in religious and institutional settings.
WHY:
A third alleged victim of former Honolulu Bishop Joseph Ferrario is filing a lawsuit and coming forward publicly saying that the cleric sexually abused him.
The man, who now lives in Las Vegas, was a seven-year-old student at Kailua’s St. Anthony’s grade school in 1975 when, he says, then-Fr. Ferrario began to groom and sexually molest him during and after school hours. Ferrario allegedly assaulted the boy in rooms on church property for roughly three years.
The alleged victim is the third man to come forward and file a lawsuit accusing Ferrario of abuse. In 2012, former St. Anthony’s parishioner Mark Pinkosh came forward and accused Ferrario and Kailua priest Joseph Henry. Ferrario was first sued for child sex crimes in 1993 by a now-deceased Honolulu man David Figueroa.
All three boys were allegedly molested during roughly the same time period at St. Anthony’s.
Copies of the lawsuit and photos will be available at the event.
The Press Conference with Troy from St. Anthony’s School and Church was heart breaking. His story is similar to other Victim/Survivors who blame themselves for the abuse they suffered at an early age when they are most at risk. His story is similar to that of David Figueroa who died years ago. How can a child stand up to an adult male who is at the top of the local hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church?
Troy was in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father who beat his family when in alcoholic sprees. No child can protect themselves in these situations. When they are further being sexually abused by other adults, they are in a hopeless place.
Those with knowledge of the cycle of abuse are able to understand the situation but not a Seven-Year-old Child. I was able to offer support because my family moved to the islands at the same time that Joseph Ferrario was being installed as Bishop. It was heartbreaking to think that our family was at the Installation ceremony at the Neil Blaisdell Center when Ferrario was at the peak of his career. No child would have been believed in the 1980’s nor would there have been any investigation on the word of a child.
The world knows more these days about the pattern of abuse. This is why Hawaii needs to repeal the Statutes of Limitation to give the children and others an investigation and a voice. We can’t let them suffer in silence. The accused need to be cleared if an investigation when that is the case.
All of us adults have a responsibility to ensure that our children are protected and when assault happens that they have the opportunity and support to let them tell us if that protection has been violated. This is what a repeal of the Statutes of Limitation provides the victims so that they can become survivors.
Hopefully, government and elected officials in the U.S. and throughout the world will eventually understand the need to return civil justice to victims of past clergy sex abuse crimes in a court of law. Hawaii’s Governor and legislators did the right thing via legislation and now children will be safer in Hawaii than many other places in the world.
Thanks to the survivors of abuse for their public outcry because with your tenacity, heinous crimes behind closed doors without accountability, would be out of control. Now, day by day, we can demand corrective action from sexual predator monsters employed by a religious or non-profit institution. Freedom of religion was never a free pass to sexually abuse anyone…. somewhere there was a twisted legal version of enabling crimes against children. These crimes must stop!