6 SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Former priest at Maspeth church accused of sexually abusing 15 women
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BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
More than a dozen women have
recently come forward alleging
that a former priest and
pastor of a Maspeth church sexually
abused them during a nearly 20-year
time period.
As fi rst reported in the Daily News,
the 15 women claim that Father Adam
Prochaski, who served Holy Cross
Church between 1969 and 1994 and
taught at the now-defunct parish
school, sexually abused them between
the years of 1973 and 1994.
They’re being represented by
attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who
represented sex abuse victims in Boston
and was portrayed in the 2015 fi lm
“Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s
award-winning investigation into
sexual abuse committed by clergymen.
Prochaski’s alleged victims were
between the ages of 5 and 16 years old
at the time of the alleged abuse, Garabedian
told QNS in a conference call
on Wednesday. It is further alleged
that the sexual abuse took place inside
the Holy Cross Church, in the rectory,
in the school, in Prochaski’s car, and
even inside the homes of some of the
alleged victims.
“Where were the supervisors? Why
weren’t they protecting the children?”
Garabedian asked. “It is time for the
Diocese of Brooklyn and Bishop Nicholas
DiMarzio to step up to the plate
and answer these questions.”
Linda Porcaro, a former teacher at
Holy Cross who taught at the school
from 1986 to 1991, was the fi rst one at
the school to take these allegations
seriously aft er seven of Prochaski’s
alleged victims alerted her to the
abuse near the end of school year
in 1990.
“I was very upset,” Porcaro told QNS.
“I immediately went to the principal.”
The principal proceeded to tell
Porcaro that everyone knew about
Prochaski and basically laughed it off :
“They thought it was a joke,” she said.
Porcaro then told another principal
about the allegations and the diocese
was informed, but not much was done
aft er that, she noted. She even confronted
Prochaski himself about the
allegations, but he also just laughed at
the accusations.
“Based on my experience, this is only
the tip of the iceberg,” Garabedian said,
indicating that there could be hundreds
of victims that Prochaski may
have abused. “Father Adam had a free
reign of sexually abusing children.”
A spokesperson for the Diocese
of Brooklyn and Queens noted that
Prochaski is no longer a priest, as he
left the priesthood in 1994 aft er the
fi rst allegations were reported to the
diocese, which subsequently contacted
the Queens District Attorney’s offi ce.
“Our zero tolerance policy ensures
that any allegations of abuse go directly
to law enforcement authorities,”
said Carolyn Erstad, a diocese spokesperson.
“We continue to work for the
protection of all children.”
According to Garabedian, the women
are now considering participating
in the diocese’s recently established
“Independent Reconciliation and Compensation
Program,” which provides
fi nancial compensation to the victims
of sexual abuse by members of the
clergy.
“They do not have to accept the
monetary award if they do not want
to; they can wait to see if statute of limitation
changes in New York,” he said.
The women are also in the process of
reporting these allegations to the District
Attorney, if they have not done so
already, Garabedian added.
Photo courtesy of Dick Lewis/New York Daily News
Fifteen women claim they were sexually abused as children by a former
priest at the Holy Cross school in Maspeth.
