CENTENNIAL (C0)
Colorado Public Radio
February 14, 2020
By Xandra McMahon
https://www.cpr.org/2020/02/14/for-denver-comedian-ben-roy-opening-up-about-his-abuse-in-the-catholic-church-was-about-standing-up-for-himself/
Ben Roy was 7-years-old when the abuse first took place at his Catholic summer camp.
He didn’t tell his parents until years later. But no action was taken — until now.
Roy, a Denver comedian, spoke with CPR in 2018 about the abuse he endured at a New Hampshire summer camp run by the Diocese of Manchester called Camp Fatima.
He’s part of a wave of survivors demanding acknowledgment in some form from the church of the abuse they endured.
For some survivors in Colorado, that means financial reparations. The state’s Catholic Church has paid out about a million dollars to nine survivors of abuse since the Jan. 31 deadline to submit claims.
The reparations are one of the few ways abuse survivors can pursue justice in Colorado if their abuse happened before the ’90s, when the statute of limitations was much more limited.
But for survivors like Roy whose abuse occurred in other states, the windows are left open for decades, allowing criminal cases to be made.
Since his initial interview, Roy was contacted by the New Hampshire Attorney General and an investigation was opened.
He returned to Colorado Matters to talk about what it’s like to pursue legal action decades after abuse, and how the results might not be what survivors expect.
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