Bishop Edgar da Cunha has been appointed Bishop of Fall River, MA despite knowingly protecting at least one priest abuser in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, Road to Recovery (September 23, 2014)

Bishop Edgar da Cunha has been appointed Bishop of Fall River, MA despite knowingly protecting at least one priest abuser in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey

Road to Recovery
September 23, 2014

http://www.road-to-recovery.org/

What: A demonstration and leafleting alerting Catholics of Fall River, MA and the general public of the actions and inactions of Bishop Edgar da Cunha regarding allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Angelito Rosales, a Vocationist priest, formerly of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ and now stationed in the Philippines.

When: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM.

Where: On the public sidewalk outside the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, 327 Second Street, Fall River, MA.

Who: Members of a non-profit charity, Road to Recovery, Inc., that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including the co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why: In approximately 2009, Bishop Edgar da Cunha, at the time an auxiliary Bishop of the Newark, NJ, Archdiocese, was directly informed by a distressed mother of two sons from Palisades Park, NJ, that Fr. Angelito Rosales, SDV, a priest of the Society of Divine Vocations (a religious order of priests and brothers of which Bishop Edgar da Cunha is a member), had sexually abused those two sons as children each on more than one occasion. Bishop Da Cunha was told by the mother that the two sons as children were sexually abused in the rectory of St. Nicholas Parish, Palisades Park, during the time that Bishop da Cunha was the Pastor of St. Nicholas Parish. One of the men reported that then Fr. Edgar da Cunha was at breakfast in the St. Nicholas rectory the morning after, as a boy, he spent the night in the rectory being plied with alcohol, sexually abused, and forced to sleep in the bedroom by Fr. Angelito Rosales. When Fr. Edgar da Cunha was Pastor of St. Michael’s Parish in Newark, NJ, both sons spent more than one overnight with Fr. Angelito Rosales who was stationed at St. Michael’s Parish, and both boys were sexually abused by Fr. Rosales there. One son was sexually abused by Fr. Rosales in Florida as well. One morning at St. Michael’s Parish in Newark, NJ, after spending the night being sexually abused by Fr. Angelito Rosales, one of the sons was given $50.00 by Fr. Edgar da Cunha, Pastor, and told to leave the rectory. When the mother reported these rampant acts of sexual abuse in 2009 to Bishop da Cunha, who was a close friend of the family and dined at their home on many occasions, he ignored the mother and never spoke to her again. Bishop da Cunha knowingly allowed Fr. Angelito Rosales to leave the United States to work in a minor seminary in the Philippines with boys who are the same age as the sons he sexually abused in the United States. Demonstrators will demand that Pope Francis rescind the appointment of Bishop Edgar da Cunha as Bishop of Fall River, MA and fire him from ministry as a bishop and priest.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc., 862-368-2800 Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA, 617-523-6250