Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse.
Three former residents of the Bronx have filed a lawsuit against Fordham University and the Archdiocese of New York that accuses both institutions of negligence in a priest’s sexual abuse of children on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the mid-to-late 1970s.
The lawsuit, filed by Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC, and Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich & Ryan, LLP., represents three anonymous plaintiffs identified only as John Doe 1, John Doe 2 and Jane Doe 1. The suit alleges that plaintiffs experienced multiple instances of sexual abuse on campus by Father John Joseph McCarthy, who worked at Fordham from 1956 to 1992.
According to the lawsuit, McCarthy would invite neighborhood children from the Bronx to play handball and other games on campus. “After the children were done partaking in these activities, Father McCarthy would take them to get ice cream and candy elsewhere on campus, including in his on-campus residence,” a press release shared with The Fordham Ram from Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley reads. “While enticing the children with promises of treats, Father McCarthy would take some of the children into back rooms and force them to engage in sexual acts with McCarthy and with each other, and in some instances took sexually explicit photographs of the children.”
In addition to these on-campus incidents, the lawsuit states that McCarthy also took children on overnight trips to Peconic Bay in Suffolk County, New York, where he would engage in sexual misconduct with minors aged 10 to 15. One of the alleged survivors of McCarthy’s abuse, who was present at a press conference on Thursday, Nov. 21, stated that McCarthy would visit his family home to build trust with his mother. “I was staying over at his house,” the anonymous survivor said. “That’s why he came to visit my mother.”
In 2019, Fordham issued a list of nine Jesuit priests formerly affiliated with the university who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. The list included Father John McCarthy, who died in 1997. His death notice, published in the New York Times, reads “Fr. John McCarthy lived his Jesuit and social work values in his teaching and in his volunteer work with underprivileged youth. We will miss him.” His funeral mass was held at the Fordham University Church.
As of Nov. 19, Fordham University Associate Vice President for Media and Public Relations Bob Howe stated that the university had not yet been served with legal documents, but was aware of the complaint.
Although it has been nearly 50 years since the alleged events took place, plaintiffs are able to file suit now due to a 2022 amendment to the Gender Motivated Violence Act. The amendment, passed by the New York City Council on Jan. 9, 2022, extended the statute of limitations on the act and allowed for a two-year “look-back window” during which time victims could bring civil cases that occurred before the statute of limitations expired. The amendment was officially enacted in March 2023, meaning the look-back window allows victims to file civil claims until March 2025.
At Thursday’s press conference, Mike Grieco and Nicholas Wainwright of the law firm Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley emphasized the role that Fordham University played in the alleged abuse. “At the time that this all happened in the ’70s, the Catholic Church, Jesuit institutions, were all aware that there was an epidemic going on within their priesthood,” said Wainwright.
Grieco said that despite this, McCarthy and other priests were allowed “unfettered access” to minors. “It’s clear that Fordham University had a complete system failure spanning decades,” Grieco said. “Fordham priests fostered a culture of sexual abuse… It is clear that Fordham did not provide checks and balances on McCarthy or other priests. Instead, the other checks and balances were McCarthy’s fellow priests who were also sexual abusers.”
Wainwright spoke further about the type of abuse the plaintiffs endured and how McCarthy gained access to the children in the first place. “Each of these survivors grew up in low-income households. They viewed Fordham as a safe place in their community that could be trusted,” Wainwright said. “When he would invite these children back to his residence hall or elsewhere on campus for snacks, 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.”
One of the plaintiffs in the case who was present at Thursday’s press conference confirmed Wainwright’s statements. The anonymous survivor told the reporters present that McCarthy would wake him up in the middle of the night and force him to perform sexual acts. On some occasions, McCarthy would tell the survivor that such acts were a lesson in manhood. “He gave me a hug and said ‘It’s okay, you’re a man,’” the survivor stated. “The things that he did, he said he was trying to teach you how to become a man.”
The alleged survivors say they have been suffering psychologically for decades, a claim the lawsuit states clearly. “It’s still in my mind,” the survivor present on Thursday said. “I just kept on thinking about it. Now, I’m by myself. I have a lot of depression. I’m very lonely right now.”
The claims of long-term psychological damage factor heavily into the lawsuit. The lawsuit also demands that compensatory damages awarded should exceed “the jurisdictional limits of all lower courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction,” meaning the case could go straight to the New York Supreme Court.
Grieco concluded his statements at the press conference by reflecting on Fordham’s “Taking Responsibility” initiative which, according to Fordham’s website, is aimed at researching “the phenomena of clergy sexual abuse and its systematic concealment.”
“Fordham University claims to ‘take responsibility,’” Grieco began. “Retrospection and reflection is a good start, but it is not enough of a remedy for a lifetime of effects of sexual abuse. My job and my colleagues’ job, through litigation, is to ensure that the printed text that Fordham authored is acted and lived upon and then delivered, and those words translate to justice.”
This article was last updated at 6:56 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2024 with information pertaining to lawsuit details and Fordham University administration’s response.
