MENDHAM (NJ)
Patch
By Russ Crespolini
The damage physical damage to the monument may not be repaired, but to those assembled outside of St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham Borough on Sunday, it hardly mattered.
The crowd was there for the third time to rededicate the memorial to child victims of clergy sex abuse that was destroyed twice in as many years. Fittingly, the ceremony was scheduled just before the close of April, which is sexual assault awareness month.
The third dedication of the monument focused on female victims of clergy sex abuse. Angela Rose of Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE), an organization dedicated to “shattering the silence of sexual violence,” traveled from Washington, DC to speak at the event. Rose was tweeting before the event started about the number of people assembled and described the day as “incredible.” New York City sex crimes prosecutor Jill Starishevsky, author of “My Body Belongs to Me,” also spoke.
The monument was designed and built as a memorial to the victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and was dedicated in 2004 at St. Joseph’s where James T. Hanley, a pastor who has been defrocked, admitted to molesting children decades ago.
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