By Stephanie Saul
Newsday
January 21, 2004

A Queens priest accused of sexual abuse in New York and Massachusetts became the subject of a new complaint yesterday, this time in Missouri.

A St. Louis man filed suit against the Rev. Romano Ferraro, claiming Ferraro sexually abused him in the 1980s when he was an altar boy.

The lawsuit also names the Archdiocese of St. Louis. It may be expanded to name the Diocese of Brooklyn as a defendant, according to attorney Patrick Noaker, who criticized Brooklyn church officials for allowing Ferraro to work in other states.

Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn, said Ferraro was in St. Louis for mental health treatment during the early 1980s and, following completion of his residential treatment, moved to a St. Louis parish to continue outpatient treatment.

"The Diocese was following the advice of the residential treatment center, which had approved his doing some kind of ministry," DeRosa said.

Ferraro, 69, was suspended from all duties as a priest in 1988, following similar allegations. He is facing trial in Massachusetts next month on criminal charges he raped the son of a family friend two decades ago. A lawyer for Ferraro did not return calls yesterday.