Syracuse Bishop Forced to Clarify Comments

NEW YORK
WGRZ

[with video]

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A Catholic Bishop with ties to Western New York is clarifying comments he made in a 2011 deposition involving a sexual abuse case.

Bishop Robert Cunningham currently leads the Diocese of Syracuse and is a former pastor, Chancellor and Administrator in Buffalo.

Bishop Cunningham testified in a 2011 deposition as a part of a federal lawsuit against the Syracuse diocese, filled by a man who said he was sexually abused as a child by a Syracuse priest.

The report on Syracuse.Com states that in the deposition, Cunningham said that victims of child-molesting priests are partly to blame for their own abuse.

Following the report by Syracuse.Com, Cunningham wrote a letter saying that the victims of secual abuse are never at fault.

A national victims’ advocate group responded today by calling for New York Cardinal Tim Dolan to denounce Cunningham and his predecessor, Bishop James Moynihan, for blaming victims of pedophile priests.

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