Sex Abuse Victims Recalled at Millstone Memorial Dedication in Mendham

By Lorraine Ash
The Record
April 29, 2012

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20120429/NJNEWS/304290013/Sex-abuse-victims-recalled-at-Millstone-Memorial-dedication-in-Mendham?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

A hundred people gathered Saturday at the Church of St. Joseph for the dedication of a new Millstone Memorial, the first in the nation built to remember survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

The original monument, dedicated in 2004, was destroyed by sledgehammer in an act of vandalism last November.

Among those gathered were some of the men who were abused as boys in the rectory of the church from 1972 to 1982 when James Hanley was pastor. Hanley, who has since been defrocked, has admitted molesting about a dozen children there and at other area parishes decades ago.

Pat Serrano, parent of a sex abuse victim, talks Saturday during the dedication ceremony of the Millstone Memorial at St Joseph's Church in Mendham. of the Millstone Memorial, the nationOs first memorial in remembrance of clergy sex abuse survivors destroyed by a vandal in November 2011. Bob Karp/Staff Photographer 2012. / Bob Karp/staff photographer

“Close to 20 men disclosed they had been abused by Father Hanley,” said retired Monsignor Kenneth Lasch, who was the pastor after Hanley.

Known as a survivors’ advocate, Lasch presided over the ceremony, which drew relatives of victims, sympathetic people from the parish and the area, and Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, an advocate for victims of child sexual abuse.

According to Lasch, St. Joseph’s parish became the epicenter for the issue on this part of the eastern seaboard.

“Childhood sexual abuse is a life sentence,” Lasch said. “It doesn’t go away ever. The monument acknowledges that the victims go through stages of healing, which is a long, multi-layered, burdensome process.

“It also stands as a symbol of people’s willingness to hear the stories of these abuse victims and to do whatever they can to help them on their road to recovery.”

The new monument stone, like the old one, is made from black basalt from the Columbia River in Oregon. Abuse victim Bill Crane, an Oregon resident, was involved with picking the stone, working with the artist who created the new monument and transporting it to New Jersey.

Crane said it draws attention to an ugly subject for the purpose of “making positive changes.”

Charges are still pending against Gordon Ellis, 37, of Mendham in connection with the vandalism and are marked for presentation to a Morris County grand jury. Ellis, identified as an out-of-work cook, was charged with criminal mischief, defacement of property, desecration of a memorial, and possession of a weapon—the sledgehammer—for an unlawful purpose.

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@njpressmedia.com