2 Accused in This Religious Order
Fr. Contardo Angelo Omarini
Per 4/18/13 news, a man stated in 2012 NJ SOL testimony that as a teenage boy he was repeatedly raped by Omarini, a Pauline Father, in the early- to mid-1960s. The boy was a parishioner at St. Bernard's church in Plainfield NJ, where Omarini said Mass in Italian on Sundays at least until 1977. The priest would travel from the Society of St. Paul's abbey and seminary on Staten Island in the NY archdiocese. He was assigned to the order's facility on Staten Island for his entire career, except for a two-year stint at St. Paul's Monastery in Canfield OH 1950-52. In Omarini's early years as a priest, the Society of St. Paul had a connection with nearby St. Rita's church on Staten Island. The complainant states that there were other victims and that Omarini abused in Plainville and also on Staten Island at the Society's abbey there. Omarini died 11/4/95. A lawsuit filed 7/13/20 claims abuse of three siblings at St. Bernard's in the late-1950s and early-1960s.
Fr. Czeslaw Szymanski
From Poland, where he was ordained. Alleged on 12/9/2010 to have sexually abused thirteen altar boys in the Boston archdiocese in 1980s, where he was listed in Directory as an archdiocesan priest. Worked previously in the Providence diocese as a priest of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit. Apparently transferred in 4/1987 from the Boston archdiocese to the Peterborough diocese in Canada. Died in a car accident 9/24/1987. On 12/11/2010, a Boston monsignor reportedly called three Szymanski survivors cowards. Cardinal O'Malley apologized. Eight accusers were to be paid $600K. Per attorney Carmen Durso, there could be up to 20 other victims.