NEW YORK
The Journal News
Written by
Marcela Rojas
CROTON-ON-HUDSON — The pain of leaving the Church of the Holy Name of Mary some 10 years ago came rushing back to Georgianna Grant after learning Monday that a deacon there had been dismissed following allegations of sexual abuse of minors years ago.
Grant had been a member of the parish for 50 years. Holy Name, she said, was where her husband was baptized, they married and christened their eight children. But she left in 2003 after two Holy Name pastors were defrocked for similar allegations.
“I miss dreadfully the heritage, the Gregorian chant, the candles. But I can’t support the hypocrisy,” Grant said. “I just couldn’t take it any longer. This newest situation doesn’t raise my comfort level.”
Parishioners were told during Sunday Masses through a letter read to them by Cardinal Timothy Dolan that Albert Mazza was accused of engaging in immoral and illegal conduct with minors prior to becoming a deacon in 1996. Authorities could not bring charges against Mazza because the statute of limitations had expired.
On Monday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a national group that supports people victimized by clergy, issued a statement criticizing Dolan for keeping the allegations from the community in the months following Mazza’s leave.
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