A former altar boy, suing over alleged clergy sex abuse, says newly unsealed priest personnel files prove the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is misleading the public about its prior knowledge of pedophile priests.<\/p>\n
David Ferrick, now 57, says Patrick Sexton, a defrocked priest, molested him on multiple occasions in 1979 and 1980 when Father Sexton helped run the parish at St. Cecilia Church in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.\u00a0 Ferrick\u2019s lawsuit, one of several filed under New York\u2019s Child Victims Act, claims the Diocese was aware of Father Sexton\u2019s pedophilia tendencies and yet failed to protect children in his presence.<\/p>\n
In its official response to Ferrick\u2019s lawsuit, attorneys for the Church denied its leaders \u201cknew or should have known that Father Sexton was a known sexual abuser of children.\u201d<\/p>\n
But last month, the judge overseeing a separate lawsuit involving Sexton, ordered many of the former priest\u2019s personnel files be unsealed.\u00a0 Some of those files show high-level Church officials expressing knowledge of sexual misconduct allegations as far back as 1979, the very same year Ferrick says Sexton began fondling him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been exposed. Documents have been released,\u201d Ferrick said.\u00a0\u201cThe information is there that this happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the unsealed documents, dated Sept. 6, 1979, and marked \u201cConfidential,\u201d \u00a0describes an internal discussion in which Fr. Sexton admitted to a high-ranking monsignor that he \u201ctook pictures of [four boys] naked in the shower\u201d at Jones Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does admit that it was an irresponsible act,\u201d the monsignor wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In another letter, dated Nov. 2004, a top administrator of the Brooklyn Diocese wrote that the sexual abuse allegations against Sexton \u201cbegan shortly after he was ordained to the priesthood\u201d in May of 1977.\u00a0That letter was addressed to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in April 2005, about five months before Ratzinger would be elected in a Vatican conclave to become the next pope \u2014 Pope Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n
According to a post on the Brooklyn Diocese website, it was in April of 2006, about a year into his papacy, when Benedict \u00a0\u201claicized\u201d Father Sexton \u2014 meaning the accused priest\u2019s clergy status was revoked.<\/p>\n
When asked how the Church claimed \u2014 in court \u2014 to be unaware of sex abuse committed by Sexton, while at the same time possessing documents confirming Sexton took photos of naked boys in 1979, a spokesperson for the Diocese, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe allegations in this case date back nearly fifty years ago,\u201d wrote Adriana Rodriguez, the Diocese of Brooklyn Director of Communications. \u201cSince then, the Diocese has taken many actions to ensure the protection of children, including mandating sexual abuse awareness training for all clergy, employees, and volunteers who interact with children.\u201d<\/p>\n
An attorney for Patrick Sexton did not respond to requests for comment via email and phone. In sworn depositions, Sexton has denied ever having sexual contact with children, though he admitted to taking the pictures of nude boys at Jones Beach.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
In an effort to keep Father Sexton\u2019s personnel files hidden from the public, attorneys for the Diocese originally argued that unsealing the documents would violate the Church\u2019s First Amendment right to free practice of religion.<\/p>\n
But Judge Joanne Quinones disagreed, noting that some of the documents were newspaper clippings that had already been widely disseminated about alleged priest misdeeds.<\/p>\n
“Sealing is not proper where disclosure would merely result in embarrassing allegations being made public … or damage to defendants\u2019 reputations,” Quinones wrote in her order forcing the files to be made public.<\/p>\n
Anelga Doumanian, the attorney for Ferrick, said she believed the decision to unseal Father Sexton\u2019s records would be the first of many orders to make priest personnel files public on court dockets across New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is the first of its kind in the Child Victims Act litigation, and it paves the way for the hundreds and hundreds of other cases like this one,\u201d Doumanian said. \u201cThe Diocese of Brooklyn has fought aggressively to keep these documents away from the public.\u201d<\/p>\n