Clergy Sexual Abuse Claim Made in Approximately 1963 by Minor Teenage Girl and Her Family Has Been Ignored and Covered up by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio to This Day

Media Release
December 1, 2014

http://www.road-to-recovery.org/

Minor teenage girl from Wellsville, Ohio, was sexually abused by Immaculate Conception Parish priest, Fr. Gerald X. Curran, on Thanksgiving Day in approximately 1963 on a field trip to Chicago, IL

Fr. Gerald X. Curran, who instructed the minor teenage girl to stay silent about the sexual abuse, was reported to the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio again in 2002 and 2010. The girl was accused of lying about the clergy sexual abuse

What

A press conference alerting the media and public that many members of the Youngstown, OH Roman Catholic Diocese, including several priests, received a report of sexual abuse of a minor child by a priest over the course of nearly 50 years and still have not acknowledged the victim or her claim.

When

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Where

Conference Room of the Hampton Inn Youngstown-North, 4400 Belmont Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio 44505, 330-759-9555

Who

Mary Ann Kennedy, currently a resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, and an alleged clergy sexual abuse victim/survivor of Fr. Gerald X. Curran; Kim Kennedy, the husband of Mary Ann Kennedy; Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, Co-founder and President of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why

In approximately 1963, Mary Ann Kennedy was an eighth grade student at Immaculate Conception School in Wellsville, Ohio. The parish priest at the time, Fr. Gerald X. Curran, took the eighth graders on a Thanksgiving field trip to Chicago, where Fr. Gerald X. Curran sexually abused Mary Ann Kennedy as a minor teenage girl. The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, was told about the sexual abuse of Mary Ann Kennedy shortly after it occurred and did nothing about it. Mary Ann Kennedy was interviewed or contacted by numerous officials of the Youngstown Diocese during the past 50 years, but nothing has been done to help Mary Ann Kennedy heal. In fact, Mary Ann Kennedy was told by the Youngstown Diocese that she was a liar and not honest. The Youngstown Diocese will be called on to acknowledge Mary Ann Kennedy’s claim and help her heal from the effects of sexual abuse by Fr. Gerald X. Curran, who instructed Mary Ann Kennedy to keep silent about his sexual abuse of her as soon they returned from Chicago in approximately 1963.

Contacts

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250