Recently, a New York man in his early 30s came forward to add his own report to the growing Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.

The man, Ryan C., is now 33, and has alleged that a priest in the Diocese of Buffalo sexually assaulted him when he was a 9-year-old child. That the priest was his own uncle makes this allegation all the more horrifying.

According to LifeSite, Ryan kept this abuse a secret for two decades, and only recently told another member of his family about the abuse.

Ryan is not the first to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by his uncle, Fr. Arthur Smith. In fact, other allegations date back about 15 years.

In response to the priest allegedly sending inappropriate online messages to a minor, Kristine Hider, the principal of St. Mary of the Lake School, sought to have Fr. Smith banned from the school. While he was at first suspended from duty and sent to a center for rehabilitation, he was later reinstated.

In a letter, Hider responded that “[i]f a teacher would have been grooming children and had inappropriate relations with a minor, they would have been fired and lost their license to teach. Yet a priest that has a history of inappropriate contact with the youth was among the youth ministering the sacrament of Reconciliation.”

The response of church leaders to these allegations has been less than many victims and their families had hoped. Indeed, Buffalo Bishop Malone, despite the significant number of allegations, wrote a recommendation letter on behalf of Fr. Smith in 2015, calling him a “person of good moral character and reputation.”

“I am unaware of anything in his background which would render him unsuitable to work with minor children,” Malone wrote, according to LifeSite.

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report

In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report about the widespread abuse by Catholic church priests and leaders, noting that more than 1,000 individuals have so far been identified as reported victims of this abuse. The victims, who were children at the time of the alleged abuse, were from six of the eight dioceses in Pennsylvania; the other two dioceses were subject to a separate investigation.

In all cases, church leaders directly responsible for the alleged abusers and others who were aware of what was going on reportedly took significant measures to cover up the abuse.

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury carefully based its report on everything from witness testimony to internal church documents. More than 300 priests and church leaders have been found to have credible allegations against them. Countless others were allegedly involved in covering up the abuse.

The grand jury found that for years, this widespread abuse was ignored and covered up. “All of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all,” wrote the Grand Jury in its report.

Now adults, many of these victims are coming forward with their own allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and other church leaders. For New York residents, this is, in part, because of a new law passed that gives survivors of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal more time to come forward and pursue litigation. The Child Victims Act was passed on Jan. 28, 2019, and allows victims of sex abuse until the age of 55 to sue their alleged abusers. Previously, charges had to be brought before the survivor turned 23, according to The New York Times.

Filing a Catholic Church Sex Abuse Lawsuit

The general public is growing increasingly aware of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, and many people are taking measures to hold those responsible for this suffering accountable. In the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, for instance, the Grand Jury included the list of names of “both the sex offenders and those who concealed them.”

If you or someone you love has been sexually abused as part of the widespread Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in New York or Pennsylvania, you may be able to join a class action lawsuit investigation. You are not alone, and legal help is available. Filing a lawsuit cannot undo the pain and suffering caused by sex abuse, but it can at least help to provide some measure of financial compensation, as well as hold those responsible for the abuse—and for covering it up—accountable for their actions and inactions.