NEW JERSEY
WHYY
December 2, 2019
By Nicholas Pugliese
Lara Fortney-McKeever fought back tears on Monday as she and her sister announced a long-awaited lawsuit against the Newark Archdiocese and Harrisburg Diocese. They allege officials there protected a now-deceased priest that sexually abused them and three of their siblings in the 1980s and ‘90s.
“Who knew he was a pedophile and aided in helping to cover it up?” she asked. “Were we silenced so that certain individuals could step on our backs to rise to power?”
About an hour later, a man announced a separate lawsuit alleging that former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused him as a teenager when McCarrick led the Newark Archdiocese in the 1990s. It also says Vatican officials were aware of McCarrick’s behavior, yet continued to promote him to higher positions.
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