Latest news with #ArchdioceseofNewYork
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Principal Retires After Spending Over 50 Years Working at Same High School: 'Lucky and Blessed'
Bill Lessa began his career at New York City's Cardinal Hayes High School in 1971 as a social studies teacher and worked his way up to principal by 2008 Nearly 54 years after he began his career at the school, he was honored by students, faculty and alumni at a retirement ceremony 'The success that I had in shaping and influencing young men was extremely rewarding and I would not change a single moment," Lessa saidA beloved New York City educator who spent more than 50 years working at the same high school — first as a social studies teacher and later as a principal — has called it a day. On Thursday, May 22, students, faculty and alumni of Cardinal Hayes High School paid tribute to Principal Bill Lessa, 75, at a retirement celebration held at the all-boys Catholic institution in the Bronx. 'We honored a Hayes Icon for the countless Hayesmen he's mentored and guided through the halls of Cardinal Hayes!' the school — whose famous alumni include Regis Philibin and Martin Scorsese — said in an announcement shared with PEOPLE. According to the Archdiocese of New York, Lessa, who received a standing ovation at the beginning and end of his retirement celebration, is the longest-serving educator at a single Catholic institution in the Bronx, the New York Post reported. 'I am lucky and blessed to have been able to serve my Church and our community for 54 years in a role that I enjoyed each day,' Lessa said in his remarks at the event last week. 'A role that rewarded me many times with the knowledge that I was making a difference in the world.' 'The success that I had in shaping and influencing young men was extremely rewarding and I would not change a single moment that I spent in the service of the young men I worked with at Cardinal Hayes High School,' he continued. Born in East Harlem, Lessa's relationship with the school began in September 1971 after his own graduation from Iona College, according to a biography shared with PEOPLE by the school. He first taught social studies and religion until 1974, when he was appointed a freshman counselor for Cardinal Hayes' guidance department. Two years later, he became a college advisor who helped the school's seniors and their parents navigate through the college admissions process. In 1978, he began acting as Cardinal Hayes' director of guidance, a role he held until 2014, during which time he also served as both assistant principal (a job he held from 2004-2008) and principal. Although Lessa said that he had other opportunities to work somewhere else, he decided to stay because of the appreciation he received from the school community. "These kids are the only kids I ever wanted to be with, the only kids I wanted to work with,' Lessa told the Post. Lessa's work in education also extends to his family. His wife Mary Anne previously served in the Rye City School District, and the couple's two children, Bill Jr. and Jaime, work as a guidance director and a third-grade teacher respectively. Additionally, a scholarship at the school has been named after Lessa. 'I thank all the wonderful teachers that I worked with and the leaders that I served with and of course everyone else that labored in this great school,' Lessa concluded his remarks at his retirement celebration last week. Read the original article on People
Herald Malaysia
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Herald Malaysia
Cardinal Dolan receives award from Becket for religious liberty leadership
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York was named the Becket Fund's 2025 Canterbury Medalist, an award that honors his career-long commitment to religious liberty. May 26, 2025 In his speech, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he is in 'good company' in defending religious freedom, along with the legal team at Becket and the founders of the United States. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Becket By Tyler Arnold Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York was named the Becket Fund's 2025 Canterbury Medalist, an award that honors his career-long commitment to religious liberty. 'His Eminence has been a towering figure in the fight for religious liberty, not just for Catholics, but for people of all faiths,' Becket President Mark Rienzi said in a statement. 'Cardinal Dolan's leadership in the public square has shaped the national conscience on religious freedom and strengthened the resolve of those who defend it.' Becket, a nonprofit law firm that represents clients who are defending their religious liberty in court, awarded Dolan the medal during its annual gala in New York. According to Becket, the honor recognizes individuals who demonstrate courage and commitment to defending religious liberty in the United States and globally. Dolan said in an acceptance speech, which was provided to CNA by Becket, that he is 'grateful' to receive the award. 'I hardly deserve this high award,' Dolan added. 'Yet, I readily admit that you are absolutely [spot on] to claim I am intensely devoted to the protection of our 'first and most cherished liberty,' religious freedom.' In his speech, Dolan said he is in 'good company' in defending religious freedom, along with the legal team at Becket and the founders of the United States. 'They and their parents had come here precisely because they were frustrated in countries where religion was imposed or proscribed, nations where battles were waged to coerce religious conviction, where they were hounded and harassed for their beliefs,' he said. 'Not here, they insisted!' Dolan said. 'This was not the way they, or, most importantly, God intended it. Nothing is more free than creedal assent; nothing merited more protection than religious freedom; nothing deserved more top billing in our Constitution.' Dolan said religious liberty is 'part of our very nature that cannot be erased' and necessary for the respect of 'the dignity of the human person.' 'Our passion for this primary liberty is not just because we happen to be a believer or a patriotic citizen, but because we are a person endowed with certain ingrained rights,' he said. Dolan was recently appointed to serve on President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, which will create a report on threats to religious freedom and strategies to enhance legal protections to preserve those rights. It will also outline the foundations of religious liberty in the United States. Previously, Dolan has served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and has led the USCCB's Committee for Religious Liberty. According to Becket, the cardinal has also staunchly defended religious freedom through testimony before Congress and when engaging with the media. 'Religious freedom isn't just about protecting what happens in church on Sundays — it's about defending the right of every person to live their faith openly, every day of the week,' Dolan said. 'It's a gift from God — not from government — and it must be protected for people of all faiths.' Other members of the Catholic clergy who have won this award from Becket include University of Mary President Monsignor James Shea and former Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput. Past medalists also include Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel; Orthodox rabbi of the oldest Jewish congregation in the U.S. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik; and First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Dallin H. Oaks.--CNA
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Most of the New York Child Victims Act lawsuits remain in limbo five years later
Back in 2019, James Manfredonia and some of his former Little League teammates thought they would finally be able to confront the coach who they allege abused them decades ago when they sued him under New York's Child Victims Act. Five years later, they have yet to get a trial date, and their lawsuit against Tony Sagona remains in limbo. The Sagona case is no outlier. For two years, from 2019 to 2021, 10,783 lawsuits were filed under the Child Victims Act in New York on behalf of 14,588 men and women who say teachers, coaches, priests and other authority figures sexually abused them as children decades ago, according to figures provided by the state's Unified Court System. Of those cases, 7,632 were assigned to judges, and 2,052 of those were either settled or disposed of. The rest are classified as "pending." 'When the lawsuits started being filed, there was a lot of attention and talk about how the victims would get justice,' said Manfredonia, 63. 'But no one seems to care. Here we are, all these years later, and we just have to wait and wait and wait and wait. How can these cases not be a priority, especially given the supposed effort to pass the law?' The Child Victims Act, which the New York Legislature passed in January 2019, lifted the statute of limitations and allowed victims of childhood abuse to sue predators regardless of when the abuse took place. While there does not appear to be a single reason the lawsuits are caught up in a legal logjam, there is plenty of finger-pointing about who is to blame. Advocates say part of the reason for the bottleneck is that just a handful of judges are handling all those cases and that the state has not done enough to speed the cases along. Ongoing legal battles between the major institutions, like the Archdiocese of New York — accused of covering up systematic sex abuse — and their insurers over who is responsible for paying millions of dollars in settlements have also stalled the cases. 'It's a typical story,' said Heather Cucolo, a professor at the New York School of Law. 'The Legislature passes something to right a wrong. We'll open this window, they say. We're supporting the victims. But the system in place to expedite these cases is just not working, and no one seems to be stepping up to effectuate and implement necessary changes.' David Catalfamo, who heads a victims' advocacy group called the Coalition for Just & Compassionate Compensation, said the state has done little to intervene in the legal battles. He said the state Department of Financial Services has released guidance saying it expects insurance companies to 'cooperate fully with the intent of the Child Victims Act.' But in practice, Catalfamo said, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Department of Financial Services have 'shamelessly sided with big insurance, abandoning the very survivors they once promised to protect.' Hochul's office did not respond to emails and calls for comment. Manfredonia's lawyer, Bradley Rice, said things are moving so slowly, in part, because of a lack of judges assigned to handle all the cases. He said that to expedite things, some of the lawsuits are being grouped together. 'This is something that you do in the first year or two after the suit is filed,' Rice said. 'The state just wasn't prepared to deal with all these lawsuits.' One of the state senators who led the drive to pass the Child Victims Act, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose district includes much of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, introduced a bill that would boost the number of state Supreme Court judges. But it is a long way from becoming law. 'New York has a constitutional cap on the number of State Supreme Court justices,' Hoylman-Sigal's office said in a written response to questions. 'We have passed legislation to remove that cap, but doing so requires passing it again through both houses and then it being approved by popular vote by the people of New York.' While Cucolo, the law professor, agreed that the scarcity of judges is a factor, she said there are other issues at play slowing down the process. 'There is the discovery process, which takes time. There are the confidentiality rules when you're dealing with cases like these,' she said. Under the Child Victims Act, there is a process by which victims must meet a 'threshold of specificity about incidents,' Cucolo said, adding that the process can take some time. Also delaying settlements are the ongoing battles between institutions being sued and their insurance companies to determine who is responsible for the payouts, Cucolo and victims' advocates say. The Archdiocese of New York has been in a battle with its insurer, Chubb, over who should pay out claims. The archdiocese has been the target of more than a thousand Child Victims Act lawsuits accusing it of having turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades. In September, after he sued Chubb alleging it flouted New York's General Business Law, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, charged in a letter to his flock that their longtime insurance company was 'attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.' Dolan, who has opposed to the Child Victims Act in the past, argued that paying out the roughly 1,400 open claims would bankrupt the church. In the meantime, the archdiocese set up its own Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to help victims who opted not to sue. As of April, the archdiocese had settled more than 430 of those cases, spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said. An archdiocesan lawyer said in a statement Friday: 'The Archdiocese and Associated Policyholders looked to their longtime insurer for help when abuse survivors brought CVA claims alleging they negligently hired, supervised, and retained certain individuals accused of committing such abuse. Chubb reneged on its promises and turned on its policyholders in their time of gravest need.' Chubb, which insured the archdiocese from 1956 to 2003, said Friday in a statement in response to questions from NBC News that 'compensating victims who suffered rampant church sexual abuse for decades should be the top priority of the Archdiocese, especially since they are sitting on a vast amount of wealth.' 'Nothing is stopping the Archdiocese from paying its victims today,' the statement continued. 'We have tried for years to get information on individual claims, but the Archdiocese refuses to cooperate or provide any information. They continue to conceal what they knew and when, which is why, in an attempt to force the release of information about claims we sued them in June of 2023.' In closing, Chubb added: 'You can't get insurance coverage for what the church has admitted — hiding and facilitating the criminal sexual abuse of children.' But even cases against smaller organizations — like Manfredonia's case against his former coach Sagona, the Great Kills Babe Ruth League and others who the plaintiffs allege knew the coach was preying on boys but did nothing to stop him — are being held up. Sagona, who is 74 and lives in Boca Raton, Florida, has not been charged with a crime. His lawyer, Steve Kirk, said Sagona 'continues to deny the allegations full-heartedly.' 'He never coached Little League and doesn't even know some of the people who are suing him,' Kirk said. Calls to a number for the Great Kills Babe Ruth League were unanswered. But there may be some good news: Rice has been told they will soon be getting a court date, but it is not clear when. However, he said, the process is taking way too long. Manfredonia said that despite the delay, he has no regrets about having filed the lawsuit. Just being able to talk openly about something that he kept bottled up inside for decades is its own reward, he said. 'The biggest benefit to coming out and telling our story is that it has helped our families begin to understand why we are the way we are,' he said. 'They can't really know what it's like, know what we've been feeling and hiding all this time. But they can begin to understand our behavior and reactions, and that's a big benefit, a very big benefit.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
09-05-2025
- NBC News
Most of the New York Child Victims Act lawsuits remain in limbo five years later
Back in 2019, James Manfredonia and some of his former Little League teammates thought they would finally be able to confront the coach who they allege abused them decades ago when they sued him under New York's Child Victims Act. Five years later, they have yet to get a trial date, and their lawsuit against Tony Sagona remains in limbo. The Sagona case is no outlier. For two years, from 2019 to 2021, 10,783 lawsuits were filed under the Child Victims Act in New York on behalf of 14,588 men and women who say teachers, coaches, priests and other authority figures sexually abused them as children decades ago, according to figures provided by the state's Unified Court System. Of those cases, 7,632 were assigned to judges, and 2,052 of those were either settled or disposed of. The rest are classified as "pending." 'When the lawsuits started being filed, there was a lot of attention and talk about how the victims would get justice,' said Manfredonia, 63. 'But no one seems to care. Here we are, all these years later, and we just have to wait and wait and wait and wait. How can these cases not be a priority, especially given the supposed effort to pass the law?' The Child Victims Act, which the New York Legislature passed in January 2019, lifted the statute of limitations and allowed victims of childhood abuse to sue predators regardless of when the abuse took place. While there does not appear to be a single reason the lawsuits are caught up in a legal logjam, there is plenty of finger-pointing about who is to blame. Advocates say part of the reason for the bottleneck is that just a handful of judges are handling all those cases and that the state has not done enough to speed the cases along. Ongoing legal battles between the major institutions, like the Archdiocese of New York — accused of covering up systematic sex abuse — and their insurers over who is responsible for paying millions of dollars in settlements have also stalled the cases. 'It's a typical story,' said Heather Cucolo, a professor at the New York School of Law. 'The Legislature passes something to right a wrong. We'll open this window, they say. We're supporting the victims. But the system in place to expedite these cases is just not working, and no one seems to be stepping up to effectuate and implement necessary changes.' David Catalfamo, who heads a victims' advocacy group called the Coalition for Just & Compassionate Compensation, said the state has done little to intervene in the legal battles. He said the state Department of Financial Services has released guidance saying it expects insurance companies to 'cooperate fully with the intent of the Child Victims Act.' But in practice, Catalfamo said, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Department of Financial Services have 'shamelessly sided with big insurance, abandoning the very survivors they once promised to protect.' Hochul's office did not respond to emails and calls for comment. Manfredonia's lawyer, Bradley Rice, said things are moving so slowly, in part, because of a lack of judges assigned to handle all the cases. He said that to expedite things, some of the lawsuits are being grouped together. 'This is something that you do in the first year or two after the suit is filed,' Rice said. 'The state just wasn't prepared to deal with all these lawsuits.' One of the state senators who led the drive to pass the Child Victims Act, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose district includes much of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, introduced a bill that would boost the number of state Supreme Court judges. But it is a long way from becoming law. 'New York has a constitutional cap on the number of State Supreme Court justices,' Hoylman-Sigal's office said in a written response to questions. 'We have passed legislation to remove that cap, but doing so requires passing it again through both houses and then it being approved by popular vote by the people of New York.' While Cucolo, the law professor, agreed that the scarcity of judges is a factor, she said there are other issues at play slowing down the process. 'There is the discovery process, which takes time. There are the confidentiality rules when you're dealing with cases like these,' she said. Under the Child Victims Act, there is a process by which victims must meet a 'threshold of specificity about incidents,' Cucolo said, adding that the process can take some time. Also delaying settlements are the ongoing battles between institutions being sued and their insurance companies to determine who is responsible for the payouts, Cucolo and victims' advocates say. The Archdiocese of New York has been in a battle with its insurer, Chubb, over who should pay out claims. The archdiocese has been the target of more than a thousand Child Victims Act lawsuits accusing it of having turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of children by priests for decades. In September, after he sued Chubb alleging it flouted New York's General Business Law, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, charged in a letter to his flock that their longtime insurance company was 'attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.' Dolan, who has opposed to the Child Victims Act in the past, argued that paying out the roughly 1,400 open claims would bankrupt the church. In the meantime, the archdiocese set up its own Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program to help victims who opted not to sue. As of April, the archdiocese had settled more than 430 of those cases, spokesperson Joseph Zwilling said. An archdiocesan lawyer said in a statement Friday: 'The Archdiocese and Associated Policyholders looked to their longtime insurer for help when abuse survivors brought CVA claims alleging they negligently hired, supervised, and retained certain individuals accused of committing such abuse. Chubb reneged on its promises and turned on its policyholders in their time of gravest need.' Chubb, which insured the archdiocese from 1956 to 2003, said Friday in a statement in response to questions from NBC News that 'compensating victims who suffered rampant church sexual abuse for decades should be the top priority of the Archdiocese, especially since they are sitting on a vast amount of wealth.' 'Nothing is stopping the Archdiocese from paying its victims today,' the statement continued. 'We have tried for years to get information on individual claims, but the Archdiocese refuses to cooperate or provide any information. They continue to conceal what they knew and when, which is why, in an attempt to force the release of information about claims we sued them in June of 2023.' In closing, Chubb added: 'You can't get insurance coverage for what the church has admitted — hiding and facilitating the criminal sexual abuse of children.' But even cases against smaller organizations — like Manfredonia's case against his former coach Sagona, the Great Kills Babe Ruth League and others who the plaintiffs allege knew the coach was preying on boys but did nothing to stop him — are being held up. Sagona, who is 74 and lives in Boca Raton, Florida, has not been charged with a crime. His lawyer, Steve Kirk, said Sagona 'continues to deny the allegations full-heartedly.' 'He never coached Little League and doesn't even know some of the people who are suing him,' Kirk said. Calls to a number for the Great Kills Babe Ruth League were unanswered. But there may be some good news: Rice has been told they will soon be getting a court date, but it is not clear when. However, he said, the process is taking way too long. Manfredonia said that despite the delay, he has no regrets about having filed the lawsuit. Just being able to talk openly about something that he kept bottled up inside for decades is its own reward, he said. 'The biggest benefit to coming out and telling our story is that it has helped our families begin to understand why we are the way we are,' he said. 'They can't really know what it's like, know what we've been feeling and hiding all this time. But they can begin to understand our behavior and reactions, and that's a big benefit, a very big benefit.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Find your nearest Catholic church with interactive NYC parish map
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Anyone looking to pray following the death of Pope Francis on Monday can find their nearest parish using the Archdiocese of New York's interactive map. The map shows Catholic churches not only in New York City, but also in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. Users can plug in the names of churches, addresses, ZIP codes and more into the search bar to find their nearest parish. More Local News Click here for the parish finder map. Churches across the city will remember the pope in regular services, some of which can be watched online. St. Patrick's Cathedral holds its weekday masses at 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. All St. Patrick's Cathedral masses are livestreamed to its website. St Patrick's Basilica on Mulberry Street holds mass at 12:10 p.m. For more information, click here. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State St. John The Divine on Amsterdam Avenue will host its daily service at 12:15 p.m., but the church will remain open through 5 p.m. Pope Francis died at 88 years old, according to the Vatican. He was dealing with health issues at the beginning of the year that lead to a 38-day hospitalization. 'I join with people all over the world, not only Catholics, but people of all faiths or none at all, in mourning the passing of our beloved Pope Francis this morning,' Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a statement to PIX11 News. 'He touched us all with his simplicity, with his heart of a humble servant. Trusting in the tender and infinite mercy of Jesus, we pray that he is, even now, enjoying his eternal reward in heaven.' Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
