NEW YORK (NY)
Patch
March 19, 2019
By Brendan Krisel,
A man who claims he was abused by a priest as a freshman at Cardinal Hayes High School in the 90s is calling on the Archdiocese of New York to remove the priest from his current posting on the Upper West Side.
Rafael Mendoza and his lawyers stood across from the Church of Notre Dame with his lawyers Tuesday morning and called on the church to suspect the church’s administrator Monsignor John Paddack so that he cannot have any more contact with children. Mendoza and four other unnamed victims claimed they were abused by Paddack between 1988 and 2002 when the priest taught at three different high schools.
“He took advantage of me when I was at my weakest point,” Mendoza said Tuesday. “I believe he should be removed. I don’t know if he is still [abusing] anyone else or any kids out there.”
Mendoza said Paddack abused him in 1996 during his freshman year at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx when he was just 14 years old. Mendoza was new to the school and said he was abusing pills and suicidal when he reached out to Paddack, the school’s counselor, for help.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.