Sexual Assault Awareness Month, observed each April, is a campaign that aims to increase awareness about the causes and risk factors for sexual assault, empower individuals to take steps to prevent it in their communities, and especially to inform minors of ways to be aware of sexual abuse and how they can protect themselves.
Catholic churches in Brooklyn and Queens are reopening today, not for Mass, but for private prayer with no more than 10 people at a time allowed inside.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn are making plans for Catholics to return to Mass and the sacraments in a way that cares for both the “souls and bodies of our people.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended the state’s lookback window for victims of abuse to file civil lawsuits until January 14, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Diocese of Rochester (N.Y.) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 12, according to the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester.
As pressure continues to mount for Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone to step down over his handling of sex abuse cases, two seminarians have publicly left the diocesan seminary and echoed calls for his resignation.
New York state’s Child Victims Act (CVA) will take effect on Aug. 14, giving those who say they were abused as minors one year to file a civil suit regardless of when the alleged crime occurred.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,The Child Victim’s Act (CVA) passed in New York state earlier this year will put the crime of sexual abuse across all of society front and center next week. The one-year window for victims to file civil lawsuits opens on August 14. The statute of limitations previously put a time limit on allegations. Now victims can bring lawsuits against individuals or entities, regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred, and seek damages for the harm they suffered.
When Tony Pastoors was 5 days old in 1987, his mother kneeled in a hospital chapel to pray his life would be spared, after he was diagnosed with Hirschsprung’s disease, which attacks the colon. Now 31, Tony is vice president of football and business administration for the Los Angeles Rams football team.
The Catholic Church in the state had removed its opposition to the Child Victims Act, or CVA, after the Legislature a week earlier expanded the retroactive window to include both private and public institutions, noting that the support for all victims – regardless of where the abuse occurred – had been a critical reason the bishops could not support past versions of the bill.
