New Lawsuit Says Accused Predator Priest Is in Long Island Parish Now

SNAP
January 20, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ny_new_lawsuit_says_accused_predator_priest_is_in_long_island_parish_now

A new civil lawsuit charges that Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy is keeping a priest on the job in a parish despite a credible report that the priest sexually assaulted a girl.

[andersonadvocates.com]

Father Gregory Yacyshyn now works at St. Jude in Mastic Beach on Long Island. He was apparently never suspended after a young woman told top Catholic officials that Fr. Yacyshyn had sexually violated her. That’s a violation of local and national church abuse policies and repeated pledges by bishops to put the safety of kids first and promptly suspend accused predator priests while investigations are done.

The alleged crimes happened at St. Francis Assisi Parish in Greenlawn. Bishop Murphy, it should be noted, was a long-time close aide and advisor to Boston’s disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law.

Bishop Murphy’s public relations staff will no doubt claim that they were allegedly unable to “substantiate” the girl’s report. Catholic officials say this often. But if they would honor their policies about being “transparent” in clergy sex cases and publicly disclose allegations against priests, many more such charges would be deemed “substantiated.”

In other words, bishops like Murphy want to have their cake and eat it too: be secretive about abuse reports, and then tell accusers “we can’t corroborate your allegation.”

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Fr. Yacyshyn – or cover ups by Bishop Murphy – will find the courage to call police, expose wrongdoers, deter deceit, protect kids and start healing.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)