Diocese of Brooklyn Releases Names of More Than 100 Clergy "Credibly" Accused of Sexual Misconduct with a Minor

By Leonard Greene
Daikly News
February 15, 2019

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/ny-metro-brooklyn-clergy-abuse-20190215-story.html

The Diocese of Brooklyn on Friday released the names of more than 100 priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The list, 108 in total, includes priests, bishops and deacons for whom allegations were reported to the diocese or the church’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

“As we know, sexual abuse is a shameful and destructive problem that is found in all aspects of society, yet it is especially egregious when it occurs within the church, and such abuse cannot be tolerated,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said in a letter accompanying the release.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is pictured in 2009. (Steven Sunshine for New York Daily News)

“It is my hope that the publishing of this list will provide some assistance to those who are continuing the difficult process of healing, as well as encourage other victims to come forward.”

The release of names is one of the largest disclosures from an individual diocese. But the diocese, which serves 1.3 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens, is one of the biggest in the nation.

Among the names on the list is a priest, the Rev. James Lara, who was removed from the ministry in 1992.

Lara, who served in Brooklyn for 19 years, reemerged in the world of academia under the name Jaime Lara, a professor of medieval and renaissance studies at Arizona State University, with a 25-year career teaching about sacred art history.

The church first disclosed his name two years ago.

Lara resigned from Arizona State after the revelation.

Administrators apparently did not know he spent nearly two decades as a priest, and Lara's time in active ministry was notably absent from his 18-page curriculum vitae.

Jaime Lara, a professor of medieval and renaissance studies at Arizona State University, was once known as Rev. James Lara, who allegedly sexually abused children. (Arizona State University)

Lara’s victims, some of whom have been financially compensated by the church, have described a predator who doted on Boy Scouts and altar boys.

Also on the list is Joseph Byrns, who was defrocked in 2013 after being removed from the ministry in 2004.

The diocese also named George Stack, who was accused of sexually abusing two boys who attended Our Lady of Snows Parish in Queens in the mid 1960s. One of the boys committed suicide at age 29, according to a lawsuit filed by his estate. Stack was removed from ministry in 2002.

According to church officials, 41 of the named clergy members died or resigned before the accusations were found credible.

Monsignor Otto Garcia, who was accused by a victim in a Daily News report of covering for pedophile priests, and sexually abusing a teenager 40 years ago, was not included on the list of the credibly accused. The diocese did note that a claim was made against him but that the allegations against Garcia were not substantiated.

Dozens of bishops across the country have produced similar sordid lists, many of them following the example of church leaders in Pennsylvania who published the names of suspected pedophile priests after a grand jury there documented decades of abuse.

In New Jersey on Wednesday, bishops from five Catholic dioceses released the names of nearly 200 priests