Media Release – December 10, 2016

Road to Recovery
December 11, 2016

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

Jamaican girl sexually abused by New York-based Franciscan priest, Fr. Paul A. Walsh, OFM, a/k/a Fr. La Salle Walsh, has asked the Franciscan Friars for help so she can heal. The Franciscan Friars have told her to “take a hike”

Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, based in Manhattan with parishes and ministries throughout the NY City/northern New Jersey metropolitan area, refuse to help a Jamaican woman even with the costs of counseling so she can begin to heal. She was sexually abused by a Franciscan missionary when she was approximately 10 years old in Kingston, Jamaica

What Demonstration and leafleting in Northern NJ alerting the media, parishioners, and ordinary citizens of the refusal of the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, based on West 31st Street, Manhattan, to help a Jamaican childhood sexual abuse victim of Fr. Paul A. Walsh, heal

When

Sunday, December 11, 2016 – 6:00 am until 9:00 am

Where On the public sidewalk and alongside a procession for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe beginning at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 65 Bartholdi Avenue, Butler, NJ, as the procession makes its way through the Town of Butler, and on to St. Mary’s Parish, Pompton Lakes, NJ, where a 9:00 am Mass will be held

Who Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a New Jersey-based non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why The Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, based in Manhattan, refuse to assist in the recovery of a childhood sexual abuse victim of one of their priests, Fr. Paul A. Walsh, OFM. This Kingston, Jamaica, woman was a little girl of approximately ten years old at Our Lady of Angels Parish and School in Kingston, Jamaica, when Fr. Paul A. Walsh, OFM, also known as Fr. La Salle Walsh, sexually abused her. This innocent victim wants to heal, but the Franciscan Friars have told her to “take a hike,” refusing, even, to help her with the costs of counseling. Demonstrators will call upon parishioners of Franciscan parishes in Butler and Pompton Lakes, NJ, and ordinary citizens to demand of the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province that they do the right thing and help this Jamaican woman heal.

Contacts Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250 – garabedianlaw@msn.com