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  Pacelli High School Abuse Lawsuit Settled out of Court

By Cara Spoto
Wausau Daily Herald
September 14, 2010

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20100914/WDH0101/9140417/Pacelli-High-School-abuse-lawsuit-settled-out-of-court

A local man who claims a teacher molested him while he was a student at Pacelli High School in 1970 has reached an out-of-court cash settlement with the Christian Brothers of the Midwest.

The 54-year-old Stevens Point resident filed a fraud lawsuit May 11 in Portage County seeking damages against the religious order, Pacelli and the Diocese of La Crosse, claiming the defendants knew his accused abuser -- Brother Raimond Rose -- was a molester but still allowed him to have contact with children.

According to the man's lawyer, Patrick Noaker, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, PA, of St. Paul, Minn., the man -- who filed as a John Doe -- was 15 when the alleged abuse occurred.

The man didn't have Rose as a teacher, according to Noaker, but Rose befriended him after visiting with his parents. The alleged abuse, which Noaker claims was "very significant," occurred in the school's rectory.

The lawsuit, which is slated for dismissal, was the 17th to be filed against the Christian Brothers by the Minnesota law firm, which claims the former teacher abused more than a dozen boys during the 1960s and 1970s while working at schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Each of the 17 suits were settled separately with the religious order during mediation late last month. Noaker said the Pacelli victim did not wish to reveal how much money he will get from the settlement.

Pacelli High School, which is no longer run by the Christian Brothers, and the diocese will not be paying damages.

"The Christian Brothers have convinced us that they have taken some steps to prevent this from ever happening again," Noaker said. "And it appears that they have more of a commitment to child protection than they used to have."

According to Brother Francis Carr, provincial superior of the Christian Brothers of the Midwest, Rose, an ordained member of the Roman Catholic order, worked at Pacelli from 1969 to 1970. Rose, 77, has not been in active ministry since 2002 and now lives in a brothers community in Chicago.

"I am pleased to report that, because all of the parties participated in good faith, our efforts at resolution were successful," Carr said in a statement issued Friday. "Although the legal matters have concluded, I will continue to remember in prayer each of the litigants in these cases, and all who are victims of sexual abuse."

 
 

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