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Lawsuit Filed against Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland Claiming Abuse by Clergy

By Chris Rose
WCSH
January 5, 2016

http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/2016/01/05/lawsuit-catholic-diocese-portland-clergy-abuse/78315814/

Six men who claim they were abused by a Catholic priest in Maine many years ago have filed civil lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

The alleged abuse happened between 1958 and 1977. The statute of limitations for their allegations has expired but their attorney is moving forward with the cases anyway. Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian filed the cases in Cumberland County Superior Court claiming something called Fraudulent Concealment.

Robert Hoatson is a former priest who now works with sexual abuse victims. Back in April he passed out copies of a letter written by a retired priest to a diocese official. It describes a conversation between the priest and another priest about five boys who had reported being abused at St. John's Church in Bangor by Fr. James Vallely. Hoatson says the six altar boys who filed the lawsuits were abused after diocese officials were aware of those allegations.

"So we're talking about twenty plus years when bishops new about this man's abuse and did nothing, didn't tell the public and didn't do anything about it", Hoatson said.

Vallely died nearly 20-years ago. Hoatson says church officials finally acknowledged his abuse in 2009 and the statute of limitations should be reset to start in that year. Hoatson has worked with four of the six alleged victims. He says the filing of the lawsuits is part of the healing process for them.

"This will hopefully be the acknowledgement, number one, that it happened and number two, some indication from the diocese of an apology and some indication of the diocese of helping them get their lives back in order", he said.

Diocese officials say since this is now a legal matter it would be inappropriate to comment at this time, but they do say Bishop Deeley encourages anyone who may have information about sexual abuse by a church representative to report it to authorities.

 

 

 

 

 




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