One of former priest Edward Pipala's many victims has filed a claim under New York's Child Victims Act, recounting the heinous secret sex society the ex-cleric formed while serving at Sacred Heart Church in Monroe.

The New Jersey man, who is only identified by his initials, A.C., in court papers, was a parishioner at the Monroe church. Pipala, though, also served at St. Joseph's Church in North Salem from 1977 to 1981. He was later successfully sued by a North Salem parishioner who reported Pipala abused him there when the parishioner was a teen.

The Child Victims Act case was originally filed against the Archdiocese of Rochester in upstate Monroe County, rather than against the Archdiocese of New York, which includes Orange County, where the Town of Monroe is located.

Although Pipala died in 2013, and $3 million had reportedly been paid out by the Archdiocese of New York's insurers to his victims by 1998, more Pipala victims could come forward under the Child Victims Act. The state law allows a lookback period, in which the statute of limitations for civil cases is suspended. The lookback period started on Wednesday and extends to August 2020.

In Monroe, Pipala was a trusted priest who volunteered with the local ambulance corps and served as chaplain to the fire department.

Then allegations of widespread sexual abuse surfaced in 1992.

What Pipala, facing state and federal charges, admitted to was even worse than the rumors: The priest had initiated dozens of boys into a secret society called "The Hole," which involved serving them liquor, watching them masturbate and having sex with them.

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Pipala told state police investigators that the Archdiocese of New York knew about his problem as early as 1977; he was treated for sex addiction at a Maryland clinic in the early 1990s.

Pipala pleaded guilty in July 1993 to a felony count of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes. Nine months later, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in White Plains to eight years in federal prison.

Pipala was 61 when he was released from Allenwood Federal Correctional Institute in late July 2000. He first lived in Yonkers, where he was born and ordained at St. Joseph's Seminary. In 2002, he was living in Mount Vernon.

From 1966 through 1975, Pipala worked for the Archdiocese at Cardinal

Hayes High School in Bronx, New York, and from 1975-1979, he worked for the Archdiocese at Moore Catholic High School, Staten Island, New York, according to the lawsuit.

Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips, who retired in 2013, prosecuted the Pipala case. Phillips was a longtime parishioner at Sacred Heart. The prosecutor told The Journal News in 2000 that Pipala "was articulate, low-key, deferential — everything you'd want a parish priest to be."

But, Phillips made clear, his former parish priest was and would continue to be "a threat to the community.''

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for the USA Today Network Northeast. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com. Twitter: @nancyrockland