Complaint Filed in N.Y. Supreme Court: [Name Redacted] v. Reverend James Collins et al.
Portion Relating to Rev. Romano J. Ferraro

October 1, 2003

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Victim of Father Romano Ferraro (hereinafter "FERRARO")

9. [Name of Plaintiff Redacted] is an adult male who presently resides in the State of Florida. He attended Holy Family Parish Church in Canarsie, Brooklyn. He was a minor child when he was abused by FERRARO beginning in approximately 1974. [Typo for 1964; see below.]

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38. Defendant FERRARO was ordained a Roman Catholic priest. The allegations of childhood sexual abuse and/or negligence forming the basis for this complaint took place in the State of New York. Plaintiff is of information and belief that FERRARO was assigned by defendant DIOCESE no later than about 1965 to the Holy Family parish church where he remained until around sometime in 1968. It was during this assignment at Holy Family that FERRARO sexually abused plaintiff [name redacted]. In around June of 1968 he was released by the DIOCESE for a Military Chaplaincy where he remained until around 1970. Plaintiff is unaware of FERRARO'S present whereabouts, except that he was arrested in 2002 for a crime related to sexually abusing a child in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The tasks in which FERRARO was engaged at the time he sexually abused plaintiff [name redacted] were administrative, authorized by the DIOCESE, and concerned the supervision of children. Upon information and belief, FERRARO knew that it was the policy and the practice of the DIOCESE not to discipline priests who sexually abused children and to cover up instances of such abuse, and relied upon that policy and practice in engaging in sexually abusive conduct.

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98. Plaintiff [name redacted] was sexually abused by defendant FERRARO at the Holy Family Parish Church in Brooklyn, where he attended the parish school and was an altar boy. FERRARO would take the altar boys from the Parish to a pool on Saturday nights to swim. FERRARO would watch the altar boys undress. Then he would remove his clothes and walk around the dressing room naked, fondling each of the boys including [name redacted] in front of the other boys. Sometimes FERRARO would engage in oral sex in the pool. The abuse also occurred on a school trip to New Jersey, and at the house of one of FERRARO'S friends. It began when [name redacted] was approximately eight years old and continued until he was 13 or 14 years old. [Name redacted] was abused by FERRARO not less than monthly in the winter during this period. As a result of the abuse, plaintiff [name redacted] has experienced pain and suffering, and has been plagued with guilt and self-doubt due to FERRARO'S conduct. He has difficulties socializing and communicating with his children about religion.