NEW YORK (NY)
The Gothamist
September 28, 2017
By Jake Offenhartz
[Includes photo of Official Catholic Directory sick-leave entry.]
More than a dozen women have come forward in recent weeks to accuse a former Queens-based Catholic priest of sexual abuse, and to allege that both Maspeth’s Holy Cross Church and the Diocese of Brooklyn worked to cover up decades of his predatory behavior.
According to attorney Mitchell Garabedian, fifteen women now say they were sexually abused by Father Adam Prochaski, who was assigned to the Holy Cross parish from 1969 to 1994. The alleged victims, now between the ages of 37 and 50, claim the abuse started when they were as young as 5 years old, and lasted well into their teenage years. Prochaski is believed to still be living in Queens.
For several years, authorities with Holy Cross were aware of the priest’s abusive behavior, but intentionally turned a deaf ear to the children’s complaints, according to Linda Porcaro, who served as a teacher at Holy Cross from 1986 to 1991.
“In 1991, about seven girls came to me, most of them Polish immigrants, to say Father Adam was sexually abusing them,” Porcaro tells Gothamist. “I went to then-principle Sister Benedict Jankowicz…She said, ‘Everybody knows about Father Adam, the whole parish knows about it.’ Then she laughed and didn’t do anything.”
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