New Lawsuits Hit Ex-local Priest
By Rosa Salter Rodriguez
A Roman Catholic priest sued in Allen County in 2007 by a man who claimed he’d been sexually abused as a child is at the center of two new lawsuits in Minnesota, where attorneys allege he has left a trail of abuse around the nation. Gerald Funcheon, 76, was ordained in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic Diocese in 1965 and belonged to the Crosier Fathers & Brothers, a religious order headquartered in Phoenix. He left that order in 1987 and has not served as a priest since 1992, when he was determined “unassignable” and was removed from ministry by the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana. The Allen County suit, which was dismissed, involved alleged abuse at a Catholic Youth Organization camp at Lake Wawasee in 1965. Funcheon has faced sexual abuse lawsuits in Minnesota, Hawaii and California beginning in 2003. He was named in 2009 in a $1.7 million settlement involving four Crosier priests with a total of nine victims, three of whom had accused Funcheon. In an $18 million settlement in 2013 against the Irish Christian Brothers, seven of that case’s 400 plaintiffs had accused Funcheon. The order is affiliated with schools where he taught. Now, Funcheon stands accused of sexually abusing four boys, ages 11 to 14, from 1970 to 1974 while they attended St. Odilia Catholic Church and School in Shoreview, Minnesota; and of abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1984 on a camping trip while Funcheon served at Palma High School in Salinas, California, one site of abuse alleged in the Irish Christian Brothers suit. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Jeff Anderson and Associates in St. Paul, Minnesota, have posted documents online saying Funcheon might have abused more than 50 children and teens. The priest worked in Indiana, Minnesota, California, Florida, Hawaii and elsewhere. In a 1992 letter between two of Funcheon’s superiors, one wrote that Funcheon had told his bishop he’d had “mutual masturbation or improper touch” with about that many boys between the ages of 10 and 16 while he was a priest. However, in a videotaped deposition in 2012, Funcheon said he didn’t know the number of victims but put it at 12, and then 18 when pressed. The video and documents can be found at www.andersonadvocates.com. In 2003, a priest at St. Odilia wrote in a status report: “The picture I now have is of a predator who has potentially hundreds of direct and indirect victims here at St. Odilia alone. I believe much more will come to light, including more lawsuits.” According to an assignment history provided by the Crosiers, Funcheon’s northeast Indiana ties include being a teacher and athletic director of Our Lady of the Lake Seminary from 1966 to 1969 and a teacher and prefect of discipline at Wawasee Preparatory School from 1973 to 1975. Both institutions are in Syracuse. An assignment record at www.bishopaccountability.org, which tracks the history of publicly accused priests, also lists summer work at the CYO camp in 1965 and 1966 and perhaps earlier, and as a chaplain to Boy Scouts in Warsaw in 1967. The site also lists Funcheon at the former Crosier Center on East Wallen Road in Fort Wayne between 1976 and 1978, although he is simultaneously listed as serving as a U.S. Air Force chaplain in Texas and Germany. Funcheon was ordained by the late Bishop Leo Pursley and worked in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese while Pursley was bishop. However, as a member of the Crosiers, Funcheon was under their supervision. Funcheon left the Crosiers in May 1987. Two months later, he was incardinated, or formally accepted, into the Diocese of Lafayette, where he grew up. He served at Central Catholic High School while in residence at St. Ann Church in Lafayette from 1986 until 1988, at St. Joan of Arc Church in Kokomo from 1988 to 1989, at St. Lawrence Church in Muncie from 1989 to 1991 and at St. Mary Church in Dunnington in 1991 and 1992. Funcheon was removed from ministry in 1992, when “the bishop became aware of his behavior prior to 1986,” according to a diocesan statement, which says the diocese had no knowledge of allegations when Funcheon arrived. The bishop accountability site says parents in Dunnington, Benton County, reported that he was developing a relationship with their son they interpreted as “grooming.” Diocese of Lafayette spokesman Kevin Cullen said Wednesday that Funcheon is still a diocesan priest but lives in a supervised treatment facility near St. Louis and has no contact with children. He is listed as retired on the bishop accountability website. No one came forward with allegations after the diocese publicized a “substantiated” allegation against Funcheon in Minnesota in February, Cullen said. In a Nov. 20 statement, the Croiser order said it had been notified Nov. 19 and 20 of three lawsuits naming Funcheon, but no details about the third suit were available Wednesday. “The Crosiers do not tolerate any forms of sexual misconduct, and we are profoundly sorry for actions committed by Gerald Funcheon while he was a member of our order,” Thomas Enneking, the order’s provincial, said in the statement. “We are committed to fostering healing for the victims and their families.” Sean McBride, spokesman for the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, said he was aware of the two Minnesota lawsuits through the media. “I have no details regarding this matter, and the diocese has not been served or notified,” he said. He said anyone sexually abused should report to civil authorities and contact diocese officials – Mary Glowaski, victims’ assistance coordinator, at 260-399-1458; or Monsignor Robert Schulte, vicar general, at 422-4611. The diocese has information online at www.diocesefwsb.org/report-sexual-abuse. The Allen County suit, filed by Stephen Eckert of Indianapolis, alleged repeated molestation, assault and battery when he was 10. According to court documents, Eckert began recalling the abuse in 2005 after looking at old photographs. The suit was dismissed in 2009 by Superior Court Judge Stanley A. Levine, who ruled that neither the diocese nor the Crosiers were responsible for Funcheon’s alleged behavior because they were unaware of it, and it was not related to the performance of his duties. The case was formally closed in 2012, according to the clerk’s office. In the Minnesota suits, attorneys cite Eckert’s lawsuit as evidence that the Crosiers knew, or should have known, about Funcheon. In a Nov. 20 news conference, Anderson said the Crosiers created a threat to the public by moving Funcheon from place to place. He said the new suits seek damages plus the release of full histories of accused Crosier priests. He said they number at least 19. “The reason we’re so alarmed is that this is a priest who could not control himself and could not control his sexual impulses, and it became known he could not,” Anderson said. “What the lawsuits filed today seek first is a full and complete disclosure.” Contact: rsalter@jg.net
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.