A Queens man says a priest he trusted groomed and sexually abused him. He came to News 12 with his story in July, and now, the Brooklyn Diocese says his claims are credible.<\/p>\n
Carmine Megaro wanted to wear the collar. He felt the calling to priesthood early, but before he even made it to the seminary, a priest abused his trust at 18 and changed his life forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was angry at myself for allowing it to happen, and because I felt it was my fault, I held it in for so long. I also felt like I had no ally in the church to tell and trust,\u201d Megaro said.<\/p>\n
Megaro first met Father Philip Pizzo his senior year of high school. Pizzo was known for being very involved with youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was my spiritual director and a father figure in my life,\u201d Megaro said. \u201cI trusted him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
After high school, with Pizzo\u2019s support, Megaro moved into the House of Discernment in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn\u2014a place where young men decide if priesthood is their path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis house was a nightmare to live in,\u201d Megaro said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, his relationship with Pizzo began to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went from sexual jokes to sexual stories to sexual questions to wanting me to see him without his clothes on,\u201d Megaro said. \u201cHe knew I was loyal to him and always bragged about my obedience. He had me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2017, when he was 19, Megaro said Pizzo sexually assaulted him at St. Benedict Joseph Labre Parish in Richmond Hill, Queens, where Pizzo was serving as priest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an out-of-body experience. I knew it was eventually going to come, but I was in denial as the grooming escalated. One day, he asked me to sit in front of him, and that\u2019s when he started touching me inappropriately,\u201d Megaro recalled.<\/p>\n
For years he kept it to himself, struggling with guilt and depression.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became daily\u2014self-harm and thoughts of suicide, because I felt very alone,\u201d Megaro said.<\/p>\n
He eventually joined the seminary but lasted less than a semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was already disgusted with the whole system,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n
He dropped out in 2019. His secret stayed hidden until July, when he reached out to News 12 after seeing her previous investigative work on sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gave me the courage to report this,\u201d he told reporter Kelly Kennedy. \u201cI would have never done it if you hadn\u2019t. One day, at work, I just broke down\u2014the anger, the memories, the betrayal overtook me. I knew I couldn\u2019t keep it to myself any longer. I had to tell my story.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, the NYPD launched an investigation. But for Megaro, it was too late – detectives said the statute of limitations had run out.<\/p>\n
“The fact that I had to go through what I went through and then be able to digest it and process it quickly and be able to tell everybody when I think it’s my fault…it just seems absurd,\u201d the Queens man said.<\/p>\n
In New York, unless the victim is a minor or force is involved, the statute of limitations for sexual assault typically runs five years.<\/p>\n
But criminal law wasn\u2019t the only path to justice. The Diocese has its own investigation process. After reviewing the case, the Diocese of Brooklyn told News 12: \u201cThe Adult Allegation Committee reviewed the investigation report and found sufficient evidence of a Code of Conduct violation, grooming, and sexual harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA weight was taken off my shoulders like you wouldn\u2019t believe,\u201d Megaro said.<\/p>\n
The diocese says the case is now in a canonical process, the church\u2019s internal court. Penalties could include removing Pizzo from priestly ministry\u2014no collar, no Mass, no teaching, no parish housing. Because this involves an adult, the process takes longer.<\/p>\n
Pizzo, now 75 and retired, declined to comment. A security guard at the church-run home where he lives said he did not want to speak.<\/p>\n
After everything, Megaro still wears a cross and goes to church.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one Sunday I just sat in the back and cried the whole time,\u201d he said. \u201cThis affected not my faith in Christ, but my faith in the church.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the diocese, the case could take months to resolve. For Megaro, the bigger fight is with the law: because of the statute of limitations, he\u2019ll never see a criminal trial. He says that needs to change so others aren\u2019t left without justice.<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn Diocese told News 12 Pizzo is not currently being paid by the diocese or any parish. He receives a pension and pays for his own living arrangements at the diocese-run home for retired priests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man says a priest he trusted groomed and sexually abused him. He came to News 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[9096,9095,98,100,99,8301,5568,9094,9,24,63,9097,5474],"class_list":["post-11388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-abuse","tag-abuse-allegations","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-sex-abuse","tag-child-sexual-abuse-material","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-priest","tag-sexual-abuse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}