Priest who served in HV named in report on sexual abuse cover-up

<p>A sweeping Pennsylvania grand jury report has revealed an alleged cover-up in the Roman Catholic Church involving hundreds of priests accused of sexually abusing children, and one of the former priests has ties to the Hudson Valley.</p>

News 12 Staff

Aug 15, 2018, 10:01 PM

Updated 2,081 days ago

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A sweeping Pennsylvania grand jury report has revealed an alleged cover-up in the Roman Catholic Church involving hundreds of priests accused of sexually abusing children, and one of the former priests has ties to the Hudson Valley.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro detailed the findings of the explosive report, which was two years in the making. The grand jury found more than 300 predator priests across the state had victimized more than 1,000 children dating back as far as 1947.
One of the priests involved in the alleged cover-up is the now-defrocked Rev. Edmund Parrakow, who began his career at churches in Tuckahoe and Yonkers.
Parrakow served a year in the Tuckahoe church in 1968 and was then assigned to St. Peter's Church in Yonkers from 1969 until 1973.
The report details Parrakow's admission in 1985 to molesting 35 boys over 17 years, adding he "thought sex with a girl was sinful and that sex with a child was not violating them."
The New York Archdiocese has confirmed that Parrakow was found to have committed multiple acts of abuse.  A spokesperson tells News 12 he is still reading the report, and added in a statement, "...it clearly deals with the pain and abuse experienced by victim-survivors, and the terribly wrong way these incidents were usually handled by the church in the past. The Church must do all it can to address the pain and suffering the victim-survivors continue to feel."
Cardinal Timothy Dolan has released a statement saying that Parrakow was sent away for treatment, but was then reassigned to Pennsylvania where he continued to abuse. He was later defrocked.
The Pennsylvania attorney general says because of the state statute of limitations, many of these sex abuse cases are too old to be prosecuted.


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