News That Matters Support us. The fact that more lawsuits were filed Wednesday against the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii alleging sexual abuse may not elicit much shock. Such legal action against the church in Hawaii and everywhere else has been widespread in recent years. So Kailua attorney Mark Gallagher, who filed the three latest lawsuits in 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu, shared information with reporters at a brief press conference to illustrate just how terrible child sex abuse can be for the young victim.
Photographs of former Hawaii priests have been advertised in hopes of encouraging sexual abuse victims to come forward with sexual abuse claims. Anthony Parish in Kailua. Henry exposed himself to the 9-year-old victim, pushed him face down on the carpet and raped him, according to Doyle and the lawsuit.
A year later, Ferrario was named pastor of St. The victim asked to speak with the priest about Father Henry and the sexual assault. As the victim spoke, Ferrario became sexually excited and forced the boy to perform oral sex, according to Doyle and the suit.
Henry and Ferrario are long dead, but the agony of sex abuse survivors lives on. Thanks to a state law extending the date to file civil claims and an aggressive publicity campaign to get more victims to come forward, more than 60 people have filed lawsuits in Hawaii alleging sexual abuse by members of the church.
Twenty-six lawsuits involving the Diocese of Honolulu and other religious orders have since been settled. Civil Beat columnist Denby Fawcett wrote about that last month after the victim — whose real name is Mark Pinkosh — shared his story with her directly.
