NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Louis C. Hochman/NJ.com
on March 14, 2013
MENDHAM — What’s fallen will rise again.
Police are continuing to search for the vandal or vandals who badly damaged a monument to child victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church — the second time in less than two years the monument has been attacked.
The man who led a drive to create the monument, and then to replace it after a borough man allegedly took a sledgehammer to the monument in 2011, has been just as busy. Bill Crane said he’s been in touch with representatives of St. Joseph Church, where the monument is located, and he’s learned repairs will be covered by insurance.
“They’ve been nothing but positive and respectful,” Crane, who runs ProtectKidsFirst.org, said. “They reached out to be last week through an attorney and told me, ‘However Mr. Crane would like to proceed, he has our 100 percent support.'”
Crane, in his childhood, had been among the several victims of then-Catholic priest James Hanley, who was removed in 2003 after admitting in a sworn statement for a civil lawsuit he sexually abused about a dozen child parishioners in Mendham and Pompton Plains between 1968 and 1982.
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