Father Carlos Peralta
Archdiocese of Newark
Ordained: 1990
Removed: 1999
Assigned as follows:
- 1980-1996 (Chile, Peru, and Guatemala)
- 1997 (Argentina)
- 1998-1999 St. John Bosco (Chicago, IL)
- 1999 Salesian Residence (NJ)
- 1999 (Virginia)
- 2000 Unknown
- 2001 (Mexico City, Mexico)
- 2002-2021 Unknown
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Father Carlos Peralta:
Father Carlos Peralta was a priest of the Salesian of Don Bosco order in 1990 and served in the Archdiocese of Newark. He served in multiple parishes throughout his career. According to media reports, allegations of sexual misconduct with minors dated back to when he was in Seminary in Chile in the 1980s. Other allegations of child sexual abuse continued in Guatemala and Peru.
In 1995, Father Peralta was accused of sexually abusing two boys from Lima during a high school retreat. One boy said the priest brought him to his room.
“He started to stroke me and he tried to touch my genitals.” When the boy protested, Father Peralta “told me in a threatening voice to go to my room and not to tell anybody about what happened.”
The other student alleged that Father Peralta came to visit him two nights in a row. On the second night he insisted “that I take off my pants and then my underwear.” Then, the boy said, “he turned around and told me to hug and to tickle him.”
A church disciplinary board concluded that “unspeakable things have occurred” and that the priest must be kept away from children. The director of the Salesian High School of Lima moved Father Peralta to another town. One year later, in 1996, he allegedly molested a teenage student during trips from Arequipa, Peru where he taught high school. In 1997, the Salesians sent him to Domus Mariae, a clergy abuse treatment center in Argentina.
In March 1998, the Order transferred the priest to Chicago where he was assigned to work in the youth center at the St. John Bosco parish. In May 1999, the father of four boys filed a lawsuit alleging that Father Peralta abused each of his children. That summer, before police could question him, the Order sent Father Peralta to Orange, NJ, then to Mexico City, with a prohibition against unsupervised access to children.
He was removed from public ministry in August 1999. He was sent to a treatment center in Virginia, then to a residence for Salesians in New Jersey. In 2004, he was reportedly working as a priest in Mexico City.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused in the Archdiocese of Newark, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Newark now have legal options, but filing deadlines will apply so do not delay in reaching out to us. Our lawyers have decades of experience representing survivors of clergy sexual abuse in New Jersey and nationwide. We can help.
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