A New Jersey hotline set up to report abuse by priests has had no shortage of callers who have stories of alleged abuse to tell, officials say.
A week after the state Attorney General's office launched a special task force to investigate allegations of sexual abuse within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, a dedicated call-in center to allow victims to speak with investigators has been all but overwhelmed.
"The hotline has been receiving a high volume of calls -- such that additional staff was assigned to receive calls -- and some of the calls are reporting multiple victims of abuse," acknowledged Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the Division of Criminal Justice.
Indeed, some have complained they have had trouble getting through.
@NewJerseyOAG I've tried myself and am hearing from a number of survivors that the hotline is not working. But we will keep trying. @TedShermanSL @KellyHeyboer
-- Confession (@Confessionfilm) September 7, 2018
@NewJerseyOAG been hearing from a number of survivors as well as myself that the hotline is not working properly but we will keep trying until we get thru. @KellyHeyboer @SusanKLivio @TedShermanSL
-- joe capozzi (@joecapozzi1) September 7, 2018
Aseltine, who would not disclose how many calls have been received, said the state has taken steps to ensure that the hotline is adequately staffed. Calls yesterday to the toll-free number, (855) 363-6548, were being answered almost immediately.
In an interview with NPR, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said the response underscored the need to have hotlines across the country, "because I am certain that this abuse, given the pattern and practices that the Pennsylvania report identified, was not limited to the Northeast."
The move by New Jersey to set up a task force and hotline was taken in the wake of the explosive Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August, which detailed in graphic terms the sex abuse by hundreds of priests who had preyed upon children for decades.
The report sparked a national outcry, with the attorneys general of Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico and New York all taking steps to investigate sex abuse by Catholic priests in their individual states.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the two-year probe found a systematic cover-up by senior church officials. "The cover-up was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the cover-up," he said.
In one case, one priest who decided to quit after years of child abuse complaints, asked for, and received, a letter of reference for a job at Walt Disney World.
Advocates in New Jersey have long complained that secrecy within the church has keep the stories of victims here from being told, and applauded the state's establishment of a task force, which will have subpoena power through a grand jury to compel testimony and demand the production of documents.
Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, who has been pushing to eliminate New Jersey's limits on civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse complaints against priests, said the hotline has given voice to survivors forced into silence for years.
"I've been working on this issue for 20 years or more, and have met dozens and dozens of survivors. Some have never talked about it before," he said. "I'm not surprised they want to let law enforcement know what happened to them."
He expects many of those calls have been long and emotional, recalling a conversation with one victim who he said is now reliving the trauma as a result of the renewed public attention, and is having a hard time coping.
"It doesn't go away," said Vitale.
Phillipsburg attorney Greg Gianforcaro, who has brought many sexual abuse cases against the church over the years, said a number of those he has represented have already called the hotline. At the same time, he expressed little surprise that the volume of calls has been substantially greater than expected.
"I predict that the findings from New Jersey's grand jury report will expose even more abuse than Pennsylvania's report has," he said.
Mark Crawford, the state director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he had anticipated there could well be a great many calls to the state's hotline.
"I suspect they are getting many calls from victims throughout the country who once lived here as a youngster and experienced clergy sexual abuse at that time," he said. "I know this as I myself have received many calls -- far more than the regular volume of survivors reaching out. Some in their 70's who stated they had never spoken to someone, anyone of their abuse before now."
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.