FALL RIVER (MA)
WPRO
By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Two men who allege they were sexually abused as young boys by a now-deceased priest are suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River and its retired former bishop.
Daniel Sherwood and Paul Andrews allege in a lawsuit filed in Hartford, Connecticut that they were victims of clergy sex abuse by the late Monsignor Maurice Souza at St. Anthony’s parish in East Falmouth, Massachusetts in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Monsignor Souza died in 1996.
The suit was filed in Connecticut, which allows for a longer statue of limitations, until victims are 48 years old, said Robert Hoatson, a former priest who co-founded “Road to Recovery”, which serves survivors of sexual abuse and their families.
“The scandal of abuse was bad enough,” said Hoatson.
“What was worse, in many cases, was the cover-up and or the denial and or the enabling. And Bishop Cronin, we think did all of those things,” said Hoatson, outside a Fall River building housing offices of the Diocese where Daniel Cronin presided as Bishop for more than 20 years before being made Archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut. He has since retired.
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