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  New Suits Name Ex-Lincoln Priests
Goodman, Condon Are Accused of Molesting Minors

By Michael Miller
Lincoln Courier
April 16, 2007

http://www.lincolncourier.com/story.asp?SID=5603&SEC=8

Peoria — Former Lincoln monsignor Norman Goodman's name surfaced in court papers again last week when five people sued the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, accusing three priests of sexually abusing them when they were minors.

Another former Lincoln priest, the Rev. Louis Condon, 84, of Moline, is named in the new allegations.

Kenneth Logan, 62, claims Condon molested him in 1959 and 1960 when Logan was 14 to 16 years old while Condon was at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Lincoln.

Alan Dorsey, 54, alleges Condon sexually abused him during the 1960s while the priest was stationed at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Delavan, starting when Dorsey was 7 years old.

The diocese said in 2005 that Condon was removed from the ministry several years ago for reasons not related to sex abuse allegations.

Two plaintiffs are alleging Goodman molested them in the late 1970s while he was pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Lincoln.

John Doe White, a 34-year-old man, claims he was molested as a 7- or 8-year-old in 1979. The other defendant, named in court papers as John Doe Black, 43, also alleges he was molested from 1977-1979 when he was 13 to 16 years old, while Goodman was at Holy Family.

Goodman, 78, who now lives in Pekin, has been accused of sexual misconduct in several lawsuits. Thirteen have been settled, while two others are pending against him.

One of the pending lawsuits was refiled in January by Daniel Williams, 42, who has accused Goodman of sexual abuse from 1975 to 1979 at the Lincoln church. Williams' lawsuit was originally filed in 2005 but was withdrawn because of ongoing mediation with the Peoria Diocese.

The diocese defrocked Goodman in May 2002.

Allegations against Goodman, a pastor in Lincoln for 35 years, came to the diocese's attention in 1997. In April 1999, the diocese reached an undisclosed settlement with 13 former altar boys who accused Goodman of sexual abuse over a 20-year period while he was a pastor at Holy Family.

Meanwhile, one of the lawsuits filed last week in Peoria also names OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria for an alleged incident there in 1957.

St. Francis spokesman Chris Lofgren declined to comment. Diocesan spokeswoman Elizabeth Smarjesse said Friday that the diocese had not been notified of the lawsuits.

The filings bring to 19 the number of active lawsuits against the diocese, all but one of them through Springfield attorney Fred Nessler, a former Logan County resident.

At least 36 clergy sex-abuse lawsuits now have been brought against the Diocese of Peoria, several of its priests and one nun since 1998. The resolved suits have been settled out of court or dismissed.

Each of the new lawsuits, filed in Peoria County Circuit Court, has 11 counts and asks for a jury trial.

The other priest accused of sexual assault in the new round of lawsuits is the late monsignor Joseph M. McGowan, who died in 2002.

Leona Deemie, 62, accuses McGowan of molesting her in 1957 while she was a 12- to 14-year-old patient at what was then called St. Francis Hospital, now OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.

The 2001 Catholic Directory for the diocese lists McGowan as an assistant at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Moline from 1953-1958. He was chaplain at the hospital from 1958-1975 and 1976-1988. He also served as a chaplain at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Bloomington from 1988 until his retirement in 1998.

 
 

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