NEW YORK (NY)
CBS News [New York NY]
November 21, 2024
By Doug Williams
A lawsuit was announced Thursday, accusing Fordham University and the Archdiocese of New York of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse of minors in the 1970s.
The lawsuit focuses on several Fordham priests. The alleged victims were not college students, but minors living in the Bronx when they say they were approached by Father John Joseph McCarthy, who was at the university until 1992, but has since died.
Their attorneys say McCarthy used Fordham’s facilities to lure the group of young boys onto campus, where he lived.
Alleged victim details an encounter
CBS News New York’s Doug Williams spoke to one of the alleged victims.
“One time, I went to his place and [we were] talking and things like that. One time, at like 12 o’clock in the morning he wakes me up, telling me me to take off my clothes in front of him, this and that, walk around the living room, like naked,” he said.
“Were you sleeping at his house?” Williams asked.
“Yes, I was staying over his house. That’s why he came to visit my mother,” the alleged victim said.
“So he came to visit and talk to your family in order to gain the trust to allow you to sleep at his house?” Williams asked.
“Yes,” the alleged victim replied.
Attorneys for alleged victims: Fordham knew what was happening
Attorneys for the victims say McCarthy was one of several priests at Fordham in and around the 1970s who abused minors, and that the university knew what was going on and turned a blind eye.
They say the minors targeted were poor kids living in the borough who viewed Fordham as a safe place in the neighborhood.
“He would take two or three of them at a time, take them into a back room, and force them to fondle each other, fondle him, or pose with each other for nude photographs,” said Nicholas Wainwright, an attorney for the alleged victims.
“He made things, like, comfortable with our friends,” the alleged victim said.
“So it almost felt like you were part of something safe because you were with your friends?” Williams asked.
“Right, right, like trusting things,” the alleged victim said.
“He’s supposed to be, like, a teacher, teaching us to become like men.”
He also said his mother was skeptical of McCarthy up until her death in 2010, adding he never spoke to her about the alleged abuse.
“He’s supposed to be, like, a teacher, teaching us to become like men. That’s what he used to tell us,” the alleged victim said.
CBS News New York reached out to Fordham for comment and was told the university is aware of the lawsuit, but has yet to be served.
The archdiocese released a statement, saying it takes allegations of sexual abuse seriously. It also pointed out that Fordham University is not an archdiocesan institution and Father McCarthy was a Jesuit Order priest, supervised by and accountable to his Jesuit superiors, not the Archdiocese of New York.
Doug Williams has been reporting and anchoring in the Tri-State Area since 2013.