NEW YORK (AP) — The Vatican has concluded that allegations of sexual abuse courting again a half century in opposition to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn don’t “have the appearance of reality,” however an legal professional for the accusers mentioned they might press ahead with their civil circumstances.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, mentioned Wednesday that the Vatican has closed its investigation into allegations made individually by two males, who accused the bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio, of abusing them a half century in the past when he was a priest in New Jersey.
DiMarzio denied the accusations made by his accusers, each of whom have filed civil claims in opposition to him.
“I repeat what I’ve mentioned from the start. There is no such thing as a reality to those allegations. All through my greater than 50-year ministry as a priest, I’ve by no means abused anybody,” DiMarzio mentioned in a press release. He mentioned he “totally cooperated” with the investigation.
“I stay centered on main the Diocese of Brooklyn as we’re rising from the darkness of the Coronavirus pandemic,” he mentioned. “I ask in your prayers as I proceed to combat in opposition to the lawsuits stemming from these two allegations, and as I now look ahead to clearing my identify within the New Jersey state courts.”
The Vatican’s dealing with of the case was being carefully watched as a result of it was among the many first to return beneath new procedures put in place two years in the past by Pope Francis to deal with allegations of sexual abuse in opposition to a few of the church’s highest rating clergy.
Critics, together with the lawyer for his accusers, expressed concern that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Religion, comprised of different bishops, would lack impartiality.
“The investigations regarding the credibility of my shoppers had been subjective and biased as a result of the investigators had been managed by and paid for by the Catholic Church,” mentioned the boys’s legal professional, Mitchell Garabedian.
“The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Religion, which rendered the choice, is within the enterprise of continuous the secrecy of clergy sexual abuse by hiding the reality,” Garabedian asserted.
One in all his accusers, Samier Tadros, mentioned the abuse started when he was 6 years outdated and a parishioner at Holy Rosary Church in Jersey Metropolis.
Tadros, who’s now 48, has demanded $20 million in compensation.
The Related Press doesn’t sometimes determine victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Tadros has completed.
In response to the allegations, Dolan employed a regulation agency to conduct an investigation. That inquiry was led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
The findings had been then forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Religion for its overview, which decided that the accusations had been baseless.
The Survivors Community of these Abused by Monks, extra generally often known as SNAP, mentioned it was not shocked by the Vatican’s actions and urged New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James to conduct its personal investigation.
“Given Bishop DiMarzio’s excessive rank within the Catholic Church — and particularly given the truth that he had been tapped by Vatican leaders to research different prelates accused of wrongdoing — we consider true transparency and accountability might want to come from secular officers in New York and New Jersey, not Rome,” SNAP mentioned in a press release.
The Lawyer Basic’s Workplace didn’t have rapid remark.
Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a Boston-based group that has amassed an enormous on-line archive of paperwork and studies alleging sexual wrongdoing by Catholic clergy, questioned the Catholic Church’s transparency within the matter and known as on the Church to launch all paperwork associated to its investigation.
“Even when their investigation was thorough,” she mentioned, “solely Cardinal Dolan had the ability to filter and interpret the proof earlier than sending” it to the Vatican.
Given the findings of the Vatican physique, Dolan mentioned in his announcement, it “won’t authorize any additional canonical course of to deal with the accusations.”
