A Queens man says a priest he trusted groomed and sexually abused him. He came to News 12 with his story in July, and now, the Brooklyn Diocese says his claims are credible.

Carmine Megaro wanted to wear the collar. He felt the calling to priesthood early, but before he even made it to the seminary, a priest abused his trust at 18 and changed his life forever.

“I was angry at myself for allowing it to happen, and because I felt it was my fault, I held it in for so long. I also felt like I had no ally in the church to tell and trust,” Megaro said.

Megaro first met Father Philip Pizzo his senior year of high school. Pizzo was known for being very involved with youth.

“He was my spiritual director and a father figure in my life,” Megaro said. “I trusted him a lot.”

After high school, with Pizzo’s support, Megaro moved into the House of Discernment in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn—a place where young men decide if priesthood is their path.

“This house was a nightmare to live in,” Megaro said.

At the same time, his relationship with Pizzo began to change.

“It went from sexual jokes to sexual stories to sexual questions to wanting me to see him without his clothes on,” Megaro said. “He knew I was loyal to him and always bragged about my obedience. He had me.”

In 2017, when he was 19, Megaro said Pizzo sexually assaulted him at St. Benedict Joseph Labre Parish in Richmond Hill, Queens, where Pizzo was serving as priest.

“It was an out-of-body experience. I knew it was eventually going to come, but I was in denial as the grooming escalated. One day, he asked me to sit in front of him, and that’s when he started touching me inappropriately,” Megaro recalled.

For years he kept it to himself, struggling with guilt and depression.

“It became daily—self-harm and thoughts of suicide, because I felt very alone,” Megaro said.

He eventually joined the seminary but lasted less than a semester.

“I was already disgusted with the whole system,” he admitted.

He dropped out in 2019. His secret stayed hidden until July, when he reached out to News 12 after seeing her previous investigative work on sexual abuse.

“You gave me the courage to report this,” he told reporter Kelly Kennedy. “I would have never done it if you hadn’t. One day, at work, I just broke down—the anger, the memories, the betrayal overtook me. I knew I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. I had to tell my story.”

In July, the NYPD launched an investigation. But for Megaro, it was too late - detectives said the statute of limitations had run out.

"The fact that I had to go through what I went through and then be able to digest it and process it quickly and be able to tell everybody when I think it's my fault...it just seems absurd,” the Queens man said.

In New York, unless the victim is a minor or force is involved, the statute of limitations for sexual assault typically runs five years.

But criminal law wasn’t the only path to justice. The Diocese has its own investigation process. After reviewing the case, the Diocese of Brooklyn told News 12: “The Adult Allegation Committee reviewed the investigation report and found sufficient evidence of a Code of Conduct violation, grooming, and sexual harassment.”

“A weight was taken off my shoulders like you wouldn’t believe,” Megaro said.

The diocese says the case is now in a canonical process, the church’s internal court. Penalties could include removing Pizzo from priestly ministry—no collar, no Mass, no teaching, no parish housing. Because this involves an adult, the process takes longer.

Pizzo, now 75 and retired, declined to comment. A security guard at the church-run home where he lives said he did not want to speak.

After everything, Megaro still wears a cross and goes to church.

“There was one Sunday I just sat in the back and cried the whole time,” he said. “This affected not my faith in Christ, but my faith in the church.”

For the diocese, the case could take months to resolve. For Megaro, the bigger fight is with the law: because of the statute of limitations, he’ll never see a criminal trial. He says that needs to change so others aren’t left without justice.

The Brooklyn Diocese told News 12 Pizzo is not currently being paid by the diocese or any parish. He receives a pension and pays for his own living arrangements at the diocese-run home for retired priests.