Removed Priest Accused in Groping

By Jay Tokasz
Buffalo News
January 19, 2012

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article714171.ece

The Rev. Secondo Casarotto was abruptly removed from his pastorate at St. Anthony of Padua Church last weekend after he was accused of groping a female parishioner.

A Catholic priest abruptly removed from a downtown Buffalo church this past weekend was accused of groping a woman inside the church rectory in 2009, a lawyer for the woman said on Wednesday.

The woman filed a complaint with Buffalo police last June in which she reported she was sexually attacked two years earlier -- in the summer of 2009 -- by the Rev. Secondo Casarotto in the priest's residence at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Court Street.

Casarotto, 70, was removed on Saturday from St. Anthony, where he had served as a priest for more than 25 years, and placed on administrative leave.

At the time, diocesan officials provided no further information about the removal.

Casarotto has not been charged with a crime. The woman, a former parishioner in her 30s, hired the Florida-based law firm of Herman, Mermelstein, & Horowitz to investigate the case. She has not filed a lawsuit at this point.

Adam D. Horowitz, one of the firm's partners, sent a letter to Bishop Edward U. Kmiec in December about his client's allegations and later spoke with diocesan attorney Lawrence J. Vilardo.

Diocesan spokesman Kevin A. Keenan confirmed on Wednesday that the diocese received the letter, although Kmiec wasn't able to read it until he returned from a vacation last week.

"We didn't find out about it until the attorney contacted us," said Keenan.

Kmiec met with Casarotto and determined, along with the Rev. Matthew Didone, provincial superior of the Scalabrini Fathers, that the priest should be placed on administrative leave, Keenan said.

Casarotto is not a Buffalo diocesan priest. Since he is part of the missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, otherwise known as the Scalabrini Fathers, the order is obligated to investigate the allegations, said Keenan.

Messages left at the order's provincial office in Staten Island were not returned.

A statement read to parishioners during weekend Masses said Casarotto was called back to the provincial house in Staten Island, but sources in Buffalo said he was still living at the St. Anthony rectory.

A woman who answered the rectory phone Wednesday afternoon said Casarotto was unavailable and hung up.

It's not clear whether Casarotto told his superiors in Staten Island he was the subject of a police complaint that accuses him of sexual misconduct.

He did not make Kmiec aware of the criminal complaint, Keenan said.

Horowitz became aware of Casarotto's removal upon reading the account of it in Monday's Buffalo News. He said his client was angry the diocese did not initially explain the reason for Casarotto's ouster.

"What they did is what they've done for decades, which is remove priests under the veil of secrecy," said Horowitz, whose firm specializes in cases of sexual abuse and misconduct.

"They're really misleading the public. This was a removal in response to a very, very serious allegation."

Keenan said the diocese didn't mention the sexual misconduct allegation because it hadn't done a preliminary investigation.

"In a situation like this, you've got to do an investigation into what may or may not have happened," he said. "When an accusation is made, someone's reputation is on the line."

According to Horowitz, the priest indicated to police that the sexual contact was consensual. The police investigation is continuing.

The woman maintains that she and Casarotto were praying together for the improved health of one of the woman's family members, when the priest took her into his bedroom and grabbed her against her will.

She waited two years to report the incident because "through the aid of therapy she realized it was important to come forward for her own healing process," said Horowitz. "Suffering in silence wasn't doing her any good. She wanted to stand up for herself. She wanted to protect other women. And she wanted accountability."

The Italian-born Casarotto has been a fixture at St. Anthony since the mid-1980s, St. Anthony of Padua, located in the shadow of City Hall, was founded as an Italian parish in 1891, the first of its kind in New York state. It still offers a Mass in Italian on Sundays, and it is one of the few churches where the traditional Latin Mass is celebrated.

Casarotto's removal shocked the parish of 200 families, and with his departure, the future of the church is in question.

In 2007, as part of the diocesan restructuring known as "Journey in Faith & Grace," St. Anthony of Padua was left to remain as an independent parish as long as the Scalabrini Fathers were able to provide a priest for it.

But Kmiec also decided if that were no longer possible, St. Anthony would have to merge into St. Joseph Cathedral, a few blocks away on Franklin Street.

Kmiec has assigned Monsignor Fred Voorhes, a diocesan priest, as temporary administrator, effective Feb. 1. The Rev. Charles Amico, a faculty member of Christ the King Seminary, will celebrate Masses until Voorhes' arrival.

Casarotto's ouster followed the sudden removals in late 2011 of two other priests from their pastorates.

The Rev. Arthur Smith unexpectedly left St. Mary of the Lake in Hamburg and Monsignor Joseph Sicari left Sacred Heart in Bowmansville.

Keenan said both priests were placed on medical leave with health conditions that he could not discuss due to privacy laws.

Sicari is returning from his medical leave and will be assigned as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, Keenan said.

Contact: jtokasz@buffnews.com