ROCHESTER (NY)
WROC
July 6, 2020
A transcript of the March deposition of former bishop Matthew Clark of the Rochester Diocese was released Monday.
The Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September of last year, less than one month after a flurry of lawsuits were filed against the Catholic organization related to the Child Victims Act.
Clark, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, answered questions about what he knew about dozens of priests and if he knew about prior allegations against them.
He did admit to knowing about prior sexual misconduct allegations against some priests. He said that some accused priests returned to the ministry after either going to get rehabilitation or seeing a psychologist.
*
Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney representing 94 sexual abuse victims in the Diocese of Rochester also released a statement concerning the deposition:
“The testimony by Bishop Matthew Clark under oath in his deposition of March 3, 2020 indicates that Bishop Clark hid pedophilia from the public for decades just as clergy sexual abuse victims had suspected. By hiding pedophilia, Bishop Clark was part of the horrible problem and not part of the solution. Given his testimony under oath, Bishop Clark had an utter disregard for the safety and well- being of children.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.