Woman Made Allegations against Priest in 2008
By Melissa Holmes
2 On Your Side has learned that Father Secundo Casarotto, the priest from St. Anthony of Padua Church in Buffalo accused of sexually assaulting two women, is in Italy. This comes a day after a second accuser came forward in the case saying she made the allegations about the priest to the Buffalo Diocese in 2008, and nothing was done about it. Father Secundo was removed from St. Anthony of Padua church in early January after an investigation into inappropriate contact with a female parishioner back in 2009. The 70-year-old was a priest there for more than 25 years. 2 On Your Side spoke to attorney Adam Horowitz, who is representing the first woman who came forward. While he does not represent the second woman, he did speak to her. Horowitz says the woman told him the incident that allegedly happened in her home in 2008. "She was stunned, shocked and sort of terrified, didn't know how to react" Horowitz recalls. "He actually pinned her hands against the wall as they were sort of struggling leaving her with bruises." Horowitz says the woman told him she did not report the incident to police because she is a devout Catholic. "What she reported to me was that she wanted the Diocese of Buffalo to handle this internally and she thought they would. So she reported it to the Bishop's office at the Diocese of Buffalo," says Horowitz. 2 On Your Side's Scott Brown spoke to Kevin Keenan, a spokesperson for the Buffalo Diocese. Kevin Keenan: "Yesterday (Monday) an individual who works for the Diocese came forward to the Bishop and said 'yes indeed I got that call in 2008 and didn't do anything with it.'" Scott Brown: "So he was derelict in his duties? Kevin Keenan: "That's a conclusion other people can make at this point, we're not ready to make it at this point." Scott Brown: "Do you think it would help the public's faith to appoint an outside investigator, as opposed to having the Diocese investigate itself?" Kevin Keenan: "I think people have faith in what the church does here. This is the first time in my memory that something like this has happened. This is something we need to look at as we move forward, how did it happen, why did it happen and to make sure it does not happen again." Scott Brown: "The employee who came forward and said 'yes I received a complaint four years ago,' will he be disciplined?" Kevin Keenan: "It's very possible that once the Bishop has all the facts he will take disciplinary action against this individual, but we haven't reached that point yet." Scott Brown: "For people out there right now who have similar allegations, what should they do should they just go to the police?" Kevin Keenan: "It's up to people if they just want to go to police if they want to go to the Diocesan coordinator they have a lot of avenues that they can take." Scott Brown: "Do you think people should have confidence that the church will act appropriately if someone comes to them." Kevin Keenan: "Absolutely." Scott Brown: "And tell me why." Kevin Keenan: "Because we have in the past and you can't make a blanket statement based on the actions of one individual because there have been plenty of other people that have made calls and the calls have been handled properly." Monday night Keenan said when that story came to light that another parishioner stepped forward, saying in 2008 she called the diocese and sent a registered letter to file a report about Father Secundo. "There's a human element in all of this and people make mistakes. People make improper judgments. The only thing that we can do at this point is learn from that obviously but also but at the same time make sure it doesn't happen again," says Keenan. 2 On Your Side's Melissa Holmes asked Keenan if anything will change at the diocese to prevent this from happening again. He responded, "we just learned of this today (Tuesday} so obviously we've got to take a look at how these type of complaints are handled internally, when they don't go directly to the assistance coordinator or to the Safe Environment Office." "If these accusations are true, and if the diocese would've done something in 2008, then it's possible the incident in 2009 would've never happened?" asked Holmes. "The complaint came in and it was not acted on, and it certainly should've been acted on," responded Keenan. The diocese says the second accuser doesn't plan to press charges, but her allegations will now be part of ongoing investigation against Father Secundo. Father Secondo has been placed on administrative leave. Keenan says Bishop Edward Kmiec is still looking into how this mistake could be made and he hasn't determined if the employee will be disciplined. Letter from Buffalo Diocese to 2 On Your Side, 1/30/12: About two weeks ago, a woman called the Catholic Center to say that in 2008 she had reported inappropriate behavior by Fr. Secondo Casarotto. She said that she had spoken to someone at the Catholic Center and had written a certified letter, but she did not have a copy of the letter or the certified receipt, and an exhaustive search of Diocesan files found neither. As part of our search, we also canvassed certain employees, however, and today one employee came forward to advise that he recalls receiving such a complaint. The employee did not routinely handle reports of this nature-the complaint was not made to our Diocesan Assistance Coordinator or Safe Environment Office. The employee said that he did not tell anyone at the Diocese about the complaint, and he did not keep any notes or letters that may have been connected with it. Nevertheless, he believed that it was appropriate to confirm the fact that a prior complaint had been made, and he therefore reported this to us.
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