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  Priest Molested Altar Boy in 1972, Lawsuit Contends

Orange County Edition
June 4, 2002

A lawsuit against the Catholic Church alleges that a priest molested a young boy 30 years ago at St. Killian Church in Mission Viejo.

The accuser, named John Doe in the suit, says he was an altar boy in 1972, when Father Bertrand W. Horvath molested him. The suit, filed last week in Orange County Superior Court, alleges that church officials moved Horvath, a Franciscan priest, from "parish to parish, from diocese to diocese, from state to state, so as to make detection harder and ... to communicate the false impression that corrective action had been taken."

Horvath, who has not lived in Southern California for at least 22 years, could not be reached for comment late Monday.

 
 

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