His son just settled pedophile priest & cover up case for $600,000

Four other victims of convicted cleric have come forward in just one week

NJ church officials now claim they warned MO church officials about predator

Wounded doctor's dad vows "to do all I can to get convicted predator locked up"

Catholic authorities know pedophile is but even now refuse to alert his neighbors

WHAT
At a sidewalk news conference, an angry man whose only son was molested by a convicted pedophile priest will discuss

• his son's abuse as a child by a priest & his recent $600,000 settlement, and
• his son's subsequent abuse-related traumas (including drug use that led to his medical license being suspended)

Other victims & advocates will

• disclose that four more victims of the same predator have come forward, and
• harshly criticize Jefferson City Catholic officials for
• accepting a convicted predator priest who had legally changed his name,
• refusing to warn the unsuspecting Boonville families about the pedophile,
• keeping silent for a year and a half about the victim's credible allegation, andfailing to disclose the recent settlement & reach out to others hurt by the priest.

They will also urge others who saw, suspected or suffered the cleric's crimes to call police, so kids can be protected.

DAY
Tuesday, Aug. 25

TIME & LOCATION
At 11:15 a.m. - in Columbia, outside the Catholic Newman Center, 701 Maryland Ave.
At 1:15 p.m. - in Jefferson City, outside the diocesan headquarters, 2207 West Main Street

WHO
A long-time Boonville man whose son was repeatedly molested and given illegal drugs by a priest, along with other victims and victims' relatives. All belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org).

WHY
At news conferences in New Jersey on Monday, a Boonville native, Dr. Mark McAllister, spoke publicly for the first time about his suffering at the hands of a predator priest, Fr. Gerald Howard. Ten days ago, SNAP disclosed that McAllister had reached a $600,000 settlement with three Catholic institutions that were responsible for sending Howard, a convicted child molester, to Missouri in the 1980s with no warning to the public and parishioners. http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/08/more_alleged_victims_of_jersey.html

Also yesterday, a top Newark Catholic official publicly claimed that the Jefferson City diocese was alerted to Howard’s criminal past. But last week, a Jefferson City diocese spokesman suggested Missouri church officials may not have been fully informed about Howard.

After his 1982 guilty plea, Newark's archbishop let Fr. Carmine Sita legally change his name to Fr. Gerald "Gerry" Howard and sent him, without any disclosure to parishioners or the public, to a Sts. Peter & Paul church in Boonville. For five years, starting in 1983, Howard repeatedly gave drugs and liquor to the then-teenaged McAllister, and severely sexually assaulted him. (McAllister's devout family belonged to the parish.) The crimes took place several places, including church property, and on trips to New York, New Jersey and elsewhere.

A year and a half ago, McAllister reported the abuse to church officials, who quickly found him credible but chose to keep his allegations secret. In late June 2009, McAllister agreed to a settlement from three defendants - the Newark archdiocese (where Howard is from), the Jefferson City diocese (where Howard was sent), and a St. Louis-based Catholic group called the Paracletes (which allegedly 'treated' Howard between diocesan assignments). Until SNAP's announcement, church staff kept silent about Howard's crimes and McAllister's settlement.

Howard remains a priest though he's allegedly not working in a parish. Church staff refuse to disclose his whereabouts. As part of the settlement, McAllister insisted that church officials begin defrocking Howard.

For six years (1976-1982), Howard worked at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Jersey City (201-433-6365), where he abused a young parishioner. For a while, Howard attended Rutgers University. In the 1980s, after being ousted from his Boonville parish, Howard moved to Columbia MO where it is believed that he took counseling courses at the University of Missouri. He was born in 1945, is now in his 60s, and was ordained in 1976.

McAllister is in his 30s, married and lives in Roanoke VA now. He is represented by two Missouri attorneys Ken Chackes of St. Louis (314 872 8420, 314 369 3902 cell) and Bryan Bacon of Columbia (573 874 7777, 314 566 8386 cell). Attorneys representing the defendants include Jeffrey Jones (for the Paracletes, 505-466-3426), Charles Carella (for the Newark diocese, 973-994-1700), Lucie Huger, Bernard Huger, & Ed Goldenhersh (for Jeff City diocese, 314-241-9090).

CONTACT
David Clohessy 314 566 9790,
Barbara Dorris 314 503 0003 cell

More alleged victims of Jersey City priest's sex abuse come forward
by Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal - Monday August 24, 2009, 4:36 PM
/The Jersey JournalDr. Mark McAllister of Roanoke, Va., right, speaks about how he was sexually abused by the Rev. Carmine C. Sita, now known as the Rev. Gerald "Gerry" Howard, outside St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City, where Sita once worked. Sita's photo is held up by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests State Director Mark Crawford during today's news conference.

News of a settlement between a man sexually abused by a former Jersey City priest has prompted four more alleged victims to come forward, including two from Jersey City, according to David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The news comes on the same day that a man molested in Missouri by the Rev. Carmine Sita, now known as the Rev. Gerald "Gerry" Howard spoke out for the first time about being abused.

Dr. Mark McAllister has reached a $600,000 settlement with the Catholic dioceses in Newark and in Missouri as well as a New Mexico counseling center where the former St. Aloysius Parish priest was sent after he was found to be molesting a teen in Jersey City.

At a news conference outside Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark this morning, which was followed later in the day by a news conference outside St. Aloysius, McAllister said he once met that 17-year-old victim.

"I met him in person and my impression of (name omitted) was that he was tragically addicted to illegal drugs," McAllister said. "He looked like he was in a downward spiral."

McAllister, who is now working with SNAP, said more victims of Sita have come forward as a result of publicity about his settlement, and Clohessy confirmed that two said they were abused in Jersey City and the other two in Missouri.

No legal actions have been taken and while the men have reached out to SNAP, they haven't spoken publicly.

"When they're ready to come forward, they will have to do it in their own time,'' Mark Crawford, state director for SNAP, said. "If they're willing to come forward and speak, they will when they're ready."

In the original Jersey City case, Sita was criminally charged with "an act of penetration with a male juvenile on diverse dates" as well drug distribution while at St. Aloysius Parish from 1976-1982.

On Sept. 15, 1982, Sita pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the unnamed 17-year-old boy.

In January 1983, Sita was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to undergo treatment.

After getting treatment in New Mexico, Sita legally changed his name and joined Ss. Peter and Paul in Boonville, Mo.

Archdiocese of Newark spokesman Jim Goodness said today that the archdiocese informed Ss. Peter and Paul of Sita's background at the time.

But McAllister said parishioners were not informed.

In May 2008 McAllister, now of Roanoke, Va., told church leaders at Ss. Peter and Paul that he was sexually abused by Sita in 1983, when he was a teenager and he and his family were parishioners there.

This morning McAllister said he met the Rev. Howard when he was 13 and the priest abused him mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually.

"For five years, I was brainwashed, drugged, beaten and tormented," McAllister said, adding that was also given alcohol by the priest. "I was forced to perform masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, and to exhibit myself in the most humiliating of ways. ... I lived my entire adolescence in fear, shame, disgrace, and self-doubt because of this man's sick behavior."

McAllister said he had no recollection of the molestation until the birth of his own son three years ago triggered flashbacks and nightmares.

"The only tools I was ever given by this man to deal with his mental, physical and sexual violations of me were illegal drugs," McAllister, who is a medical doctor, added that later in life he relied on the same coping mechanisms. "My addictions and many other self-destructive behaviors I chose have brought devastation to my career and much pain and suffering to my loved ones and others. I make no excuses for the choices I have made in the past but today I have found there is a better way."

He said he finds healing in speaking out against Sita and the church he says "protected him, secluded him, disguised him and ultimately unleashed him on my hometown with full knowledge that he would devastate more defenseless children."

Goodness said Sita is still registered as a priest of the Newark archdiocese but is not paid and has not performed priestly duties since 1984.

The archdiocese recently began the process of defrocking him, Goodness said.

As McAllister contacted the archdiocese in 2008 "we immediately made an offer of counseling for him and we took his information and at that point I contacted New Jersey authorities and the authorities in Missouri to let them know we had an allegation that had just come foreword 25 years after it happened," Goodness said. "We began our review board process of investigating the situation. We took the allegation very seriously."