ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier
March 3, 2020
By Mike Latona
A lawsuit was filed Feb. 19 charging Father Joseph Grasso, CPPS, with sexual abuse of a student in the early 2000s while the priest was principal of Brighton’s Siena Catholic Academy, a diocesan junior high school.
The suit against Father Grasso, a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, was filed in Monroe County Supreme Court by the Buffalo law firm of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria.
According to the complaint — which was amended Feb. 25 to correct the dates and locations of the alleged abuse — Father Grasso “sexually assaulted and committed battery” against an unidentified male student between early January 2002 and sometime in 2003. The suit charges that the abuse took place at Siena Catholic Academy and/or St. Thomas More Church, which are on the same campus. It states that the alleged victim was born in 1990, making him approximately 12 or 13 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.
The complaint was filed only against Father Grasso and not the Diocese of Rochester, St. Thomas More Parish or Siena Catholic Academy. Doug Mandelaro, diocesan director of communications, told the Catholic Courier that the diocese has never received a complaint against Father Grasso for sexual abuse of a minor.
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