2 Men Allege Long-term Sexual Abuse by Falmouth Priest

By Ethan Genter
Cape Cod Times
June 16, 2015

http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150616/NEWS/150619559/101015

A Falmouth man who alleges he was sexually abused by a St. Anthony’s Parish priest more than 200 times as a child has filed a lawsuit against the priest’s supervisor, the former bishop of the Fall River Diocese.

The civil suit, filed June 5 in Middlesex Superior Court, maintains that former Bishop Daniel A. Cronin knew or should have known about the abuse by Msgr. Maurice Souza.

The Falmouth plaintiff is joined in the suit by a man from Marlboro. The two were altar servers at St. Anthony’s from the late 1970s until the mid 1980s. Although both are identified in the suit, the Times is not naming them because of the allegations of sexual abuse.

Souza died in 1996, and Cronin, who served as bishop of the Fall River Diocese from 1970 until 1991, retired in 2003 after leading the Archdiocese of Hartford for 11 years.

The lawsuit originally was filed in Connecticut, but was dismissed there and filed in Massachusetts when Cronin agreed to travel here to testify and to waive the statute of limitations as a defense, according to Mitchell Garabedian, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

“It’s unusual that a defendant would waive the statute of limitations,” Garabedian said Monday. “Most of these cases the defendants raise the statute of limitations as a defense.”

Cronin’s attorney, David Gay, said they agreed to waive the statute, which restricts the time frame in which legal proceedings may be brought, to prevent Cronin from being sued in Connecticut. If the case were to go to trial, it should be in Massachusetts where he was archbishop, he said.

The two plaintiffs allege that the abuse occurred from the time they were 9 or 10 years old until they were 16 or 17. They would accompany Souza to various sporting events and other events in several states and would often spend the night with him at the St. Anthony’s rectory, in hotels or at Souza’s residence in Taunton, the suit alleges.

Garabedian declined to be more specific about the events they attended, but he said the abuse against the alleged Falmouth victim took place in hotel rooms in eight states.

“Archbishop Cronin failed to protect innocent children and as a result these children, who are now adults, have suffered life-lasting serious harm,” Garabedian said. “One has to wonder how many children were sexually abused by Monsignor Souza and why proper supervision did not take place.”

John Kearns, spokesman for the Diocese of Fall River, was not available for comment Monday.

The suit seeks damages in an amount to be determined by a jury, “plus costs, interest, attorneys’ fees and such other and further relief as this court deems just and equitable."

The plaintiffs have “suffered, and will continue to suffer in the future, severe and permanent distress and emotional injuries” and have had “financial expenses for medical and therapeutic care and treatment” resulting in “long-term lost earning,” the complaint says.

“My clients should be proud of themselves for coming forward,” Garabedian said. “In doing so, they are empowering themselves, other sexual abuse victims and making the world a safer place for children.”

Cronin also was named in a lawsuit filed in December in Bristol Superior Court maintaining that he and other church officials failed to oversee the Rev. James R. Nickel, who allegedly sexually abused two boys in the 1970s and '80s while assigned to Holy Trinity Church in West Harwich and another church in Fairhaven. Nickel has since died.

Contact: egenter@capecodonline.com