A new lawsuit filed in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal alleges that a victim attempted to share his concerns about abuse in the past but was told to forget about the issue.

At a time when the number of cases filed under the Child Victims Act in New York has crossed over 1,000, church officials have been targeted in claims of serious abuse from victims of many different ages.

Some of the more recent lawsuits in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal allege that the abuse happened decades before. The new law, however, allows these victims a window to come forward even if their previous statute of limitations expired. More cases are expected before the one-year window is up, too, since the window just opened in August 2019.

In over 50 of the claims brought under the Child Victim’s Act, the Albany Diocese has been named as a defendant. Many of the lawsuits so far have targeted entities associated with the Catholic Church.

According to the Albany Times Union, the latest lawsuit states that an Albany bishop discouraged a victim from speaking out about the abuse. The bishop accused of telling the victim to forget about the “moment of weakness” exhibited by another church official.

According to the suit, the alleged abuse happened over 60 years ago when the victim, a 16-year-old boy, was spending his weekends working at Glenmont’s Jesuit Retreat House. According to the victim, now 80 years old and anonymous in the suit filing, a Catholic priest groomed and abused him on multiple occasions.

The bishop accused of telling the teenage boy to forget about the abuse claims that he was not even ordained as a priest until 1963, years after the abuse allegedly occurred in 1956. He says that no one informed him about any cases that could be considered part of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal during the time he was in seminary school or preparing to be ordained.

The same bishop, however, has come up in other cases in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Another case involves claims that the bishop informed a victim’s godmother that the Church was “aware of the situation.”

Yet another claim reportedly involves a man who says he came to the diocese where the bishop was a leader in 1992 with claims that one priest, Leroux, had abused him multiple times in the 1960s. Leroux, however, was allowed to continue under the bishop’s leadership despite those claims. Ultimately, Leroux was removed from the ministry in 2002.

The bishop retired in 2014 and continues to say he is not responsible for any wrongdoing.

Many different church officials have been accused in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and are taking advantage of the opened lookback window to file a lawsuit.

If you or someone you know is a former victim of a church official’s sex abuse, you deserve to know how to put together a legal claim and to discuss the relevant aspects of your case with a dedicated lawyer. Top Class Actions can help you find an attorney to work through your legal claim.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.