Father Randolph Nowak
Ordained: 1952
Laicized: 2004
Assigned as follows:
- 1952-1969: St. Mary's Seminary, Mary Immaculate Friary (a.k.a. Glenclyffe High School) (Garrison-on-Hudson, New York)
- 1970-1971: Capuchin Fathers Residence (Hawthorne, NY
- 1971-1973: Capuchin Fathers Provincialate, St. Conrad Friary (White Plains, NY)
- 1973-1978: St. Mary Friary (Garrison-on-Hudson, NY)
- 1978: St. John's Hospital and Hudson View Nursing Home (Yonkers, NY)
- 1978-1979: Sacred Heart (Yonkers, NY)
- 1979-1980: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Agat, Guam); St. Anne's (San Isidro, Guam)
- 1980-1988: San Juan Bautista (Ordot, Guam)
- 1988-1991: Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Ewa Beach, HI)
- 1991-1992: Holy Rosary (Pahala, HI)
- 1992-1994: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Waikane, HI)
- 1994-1996: Unknown
- 1996-2001: Retired
- 2001-2007: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Agat, Guam; Capuchin Fraternity (Agat, Guam)
- 2007-2016: St. Fidelis Friary (Agaña Heights, Guam)
Summary of Abuse Allegations against Father Randolph Nowak:
Fr. Randolph Nowak was ordained a Capuchin Franciscan Friar. He spent more than twenty-five years of his early ministry working with high school-aged seminarians at St. Mary's Seminary in Garrison, NY. In 1979, he was transferred to Guam and then to Hawaii in 1988. Nowak worked in almost every parish in Guam staffed by his Order.
His faculties had been removed in 2004 for past allegations that "arose elsewhere". The Capuchins paid for some of the survivor's counseling fees beginning in 2006.
According to media reports, in 2008, a man wrote in a letter to the Capuchins that he had been repeatedly sexually abused by Nowak from 1961 to 1966 when he was a student at St. Mary's seminary, a Capuchin-run high school in Glenclyffe, New York. The priest wrote back in an email to his former student, apologizing for the abuse.
"I was glad to finally contact you after my talk with Fr. Mike Banks. Again I apologize for what happened between us. I was fully at fault. Many times I have prayed to die because of my guilt. I am also sorry to hear that it has severely upset your life. I have kept you in my daily prayers and will continue to do so. My life too has hit the bottom. It has been messed up because I went through the same problems. Sincerely, Randolph."
The victim also said that he reported the abuse to Fr. Regis Armstrong as early as the mid-1970s, but no action was taken. In 2008, Armstrong said he didn't "recall such a conversation... ."
"I turned to him for help. And he did nothing with this information. I feel Regis is guilty of the sin of omission. What he did was almost as grievous as what Randy did. He knew everything," claimed the victim.
As of April 2017, Nowak has been living in retirement since at least 2007 at the St. Fidelis Friary in Agaña Heights, Guam.
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