WATERTOWN (NY)
Watertown Daily Times
May 23, 2018
By Jaime Cook
Alexandria Bay – After receiving an offer of funds from the Diocese of Ogdensburg intended “to assist victims of clergy sex abuse in their healing process,” one recipient says that the Catholic Church must either change or cease to be.
“When I opened it, I thought it was a joke, a cruel joke,” said Jim Cummings, a 58-year-old man who lives in Alexandria Bay with his family. “Prior to me receiving this letter, I was coping quite well, and so was the other victim I know. Occasionally something would remind me, but now, since that letter, every day I cry because they do not get it. The bishop does not get it — at all.”
The letters follow the creation of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program at the Diocese of Ogdensburg March 1. Its two-person panel, Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, will determine if the 38 victims claiming sexual abuse by priests in the diocese should be financially compensated.
Mr. Cummings said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Paul F. Worczak in the early 1970s. The incidents took place when Worczak was a priest at Holy Family Church, Watertown.
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