GENEVA (NY)
Finger Lakes Times
August 12, 2018
By Steve Buchiere
Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary of Lochland Road was a place where young men considered life as a Capuchin friar.
But for Peter Saracino, it was a place where he said he lost his soul.
Saracino, a retired Marcus Whitman teacher who grew up in Seneca Falls and now lives in Phelps, claims a Capuchin priest abused him when he was 8 or 9 at the former Catholic seminary, which is now the upscale resort Geneva On the Lake.
Meeting with a small group of reporters this past week, Saracino named the alleged abuser for the first time, but the Finger Lakes Times is not divulging the name.
There has been no official acknowledgement by the order of the abuse.
The former Geneva seminary was run by the Capuchin Friars of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of Union City, N.J.
Saracino, a vocal advocate for clergy abuse victims, said he approached the Capuchins about his allegations, and they concluded “it was my word against his,” and the priest was allowed to continue in the ministry.
He said former Rochester Diocese Bishop Mathew Clark believed him and would not allow the priest to serve the diocese.
Saracino and Robert Hoatson, co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, a charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, believe the priest is still alive and somewhere in the New York-New Jersey area.
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