The Hidden Abuse
Interview with James Curry

The [Wilmington DE] News Journal
November 21, 2005

Streaming video available under "Multimedia" at:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051121/NEWS/511210354/-1/NEWS01

[Transcribed by BishopAccountability.org from the streaming video. Paragraphs indicate cuts in the video.]

[See links to other articles, documents, and transcripts of interviews in this series.]

James Curry, 76, of Danville, Pa., found out what Father Edward B. Carley had done to his son in a 1994 letter his son wrote to him.

We first went to St. Dennis, he was in [inaudible] going to Mass and all, in second grade. He was hyper, but that, you know, we could deal with that, you know, that's not a big deal.

Father Carley, who came to the church during, I think it was his eighth grade, this is when real problems began and he slid down into an out-of-control situation.

We took him to the University of Deleware -- they had a group there that studies this type of child behavior and all this -- to no avail, because nobody knew.... They put him on Ritalin, then off Ritalin, on ...

Years later, after his freshman year, [inaudible] in and out of jails....

Then on one occasion he was in jail in Florida, Father Carley had sent him money all the time, thousands and thousands of dollars. Did drugs, never working though, just did drugs and living in the motels and all this, and having a big time. At any rate, finally, after so many years of that, I finally got just on the phone, and told him, I said, "Look, you're just out of control so bad, that we're going to have to give up." He says, "Dad," he says, "I know it, I'm sitting on a curb here, in the town, here in Florida, right now." And he says, "I'm going to send you a letter as to what happened." And he did.

In the middle of December of '94, he sent me a letter, stating that Father Carley had raped him, took him to the rectory, raped him, and then also had hid him from the police when they were looking for him, him and his girlfriend. Carley would hide them up in the rectory or up in the bedroom somewhere until the police left.

Carley had messed us up so bad that everything was going ... even our house was going up for sale.

I met with Monsignor [Clement P.] Lemon [Episcopal Vicar for Clergy] from the diocese on two occasions seeking some kind of help....

I also sought to have some kind of accountabilities for the money, and time, and effort, over the years that my wife and I had spent.

He in turn said he would get with Carley and talk to Carley about this. And that was the end of the line then. We never heard from Carley or Lemon again.