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CNN Live At Daybreak

Former Pro Baseball Player Alleges Abuse by Priest

Aired April 04, 2002 - 06:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: From California to Massachusetts, the Catholic Church has been rocked by accusations of abuse. The latest finger-pointing comes from a former pro baseball player who is speaking out for the first time.

CNN's John Zarrella tells us about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM PACIOREK, ALLEGING PRIEST ABUSE: In 1962 I was 15 years old, a sophomore in high school.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Tom Paciorek, star high school athlete, Major League Baseball player...

PACIOREK: That's going to be the ball game, I believe.

ZARRELLA: ... and now a broadcaster, says that was "...the first time," in his words, he was attacked by this man, Father Gerald Shirilla.

PACIOREK: He was teaching me how to drive. And all of a sudden the touching came, the genital touching and the -- and the private areas, which are, you know, totally restricted, were not restricted to him and made -- trumped up excuses as to why this was OK.

ZARRELLA: Paciorek says he was abused regularly for four years.

PACIOREK: That happened -- yeah, I would say 100 times.

ZARRELLA: Shirilla was not yet a priest when he met Paciorek. Shirilla was a teacher here at St. Ladislaus Catholic School in Hamtramck, Michigan. Tom and his older brother John both attended the school.

Tom says the worst 72 hours of his life came after more than a year of knowing Shirilla. His parents went out of town and he was sent to stay with Shirilla. By then, studying here, at Sacred Heart Seminary, to be a priest.

PACIOREK: It was like going to hell, because it was one attack at all. I don't think I had ever felt more despair, more hate, more emotion than -- more evil that was going on. Because I remember saying, "God, is it ever going to end?" ZARRELLA: But despite his despair, Tom never said a word to anyone. Silence he thought was only protecting himself, not knowing that John and two younger brothers would later make the same allegations.

PACIOREK: And simultaneously he was molesting my two younger brothers. One of them was only eight years old at the time. The other one was 12. And every day, you know, that goes by, there's a pain inside of me because I knew I didn't protect my brothers...

ZARRELLA: Mike, here on the left, and Bob, on the right, say they understand why their older brothers kept the secret. They were all, the brothers say, "...embarrassed and confused, but mainly..."

BOB PACIOREK, ALLEGING PRIEST ABUSE: I came from a strict Catholic family. And anybody in the priesthood who was a priest, we would look at him as Jesus on earth -- lord on earth. You know? And so, my God, he's -- this isn't wrong. He's God.

ZARRELLA: Bob, Mike and Tom say many of the molestations took place inside the walls of Sacred Heart Seminary itself. Mike says he was eight years old at that time.

MIKE PACIOREK, ALLEGING PRIEST ABUSE: Well, we would stop over there and we would go up to his room. He would lock the door and he would have me take my clothes off and, you know, give me this massage on my back. He would start off with my back and work his way to places where I didn't want to be touched.

ZARRELLA: The brothers all claim the molestations took place over a period of years, until they left high school and moved on to college. Yet Shirilla remained in their lives. This picture of Tom, Father Shirilla and a family friend was taken in 1973, Tom's rookie year with the Dodgers. Shirilla even presided over Tom's wedding.

The Pacioreks admit it's tough to understand this relationship. But what happened to them, they say, is the absolute truth.

T. PACIOREK: I'd be more than happy to take a lie detector test on this. Because as I said earlier, telling the truth is really easy.

ZARRELLA: Paciorek says he decided to go public with his story after he found out a couple of weeks ago that Shirilla was still in the priesthood and was the pastor at this Catholic Church, St. Mary's in Alpena, Michigan. Shirilla has since been removed at the request of the Detroit Archdiocese. But through his attorney he adamantly denies all abuse charges.

It wasn't until the mid 1980's that Mike says he told their parents. And Tom's wife, she confronted Shirilla during a phone conversation.

T. PACIOREK: He totally denied it and he says, "Chris, I am not a homosexual or a pedophilia," and he hung up on her. And that's the last contact anyone in our family I believe has had with him. ZARRELLA: In 1993, the Archdiocese of Detroit, following a lawsuit by another family and complaints by former altar boys, sent Shirilla to a treatment center for a year. According to the Archdiocese, Shirilla was "indefinitely prohibited from any exercise of priestly ministry." For the next seven years his whereabouts are unknown.

His attorney says Shirilla was not involved in the ministry, but would not say where he was. It was, the Archdiocese of Detroit says, without their approval or permission that he accepted the assignment at St. Mary's in northern Michigan, the Diocese of Gaylord. But a statement from that diocese says the Archdiocese of Detroit, including Cardinal Adam Maida, was aware Shirilla was the pastor at St. Mary's.

What happens now? The Pacioreks say it's out of their hands. And it is, Tom says, "...finally, after four years, over."

T. PACIOREK: As I'm running, I here something inside of me say, "It's over." And oh my God I just lifted my head and tears fell down my face and I just said, "This is unbelievable joy. It's over. It's going to be over."

John Zarrella, CNN, Orlando, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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