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	Retired Priest in Named in New Sex Abuse Case By Robert Goodrich St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) September 26, 2003 A suit filed Thursday by a man identified only as John Doe against a retired priest and the Belleville Diocese says the priest sexually abused him more than 20 years ago. The suit, filed in circuit court in Belleville, contains 21 counts, each seeking more than $50,000 in damages. The retired priest, Raymond Kownacki, could not be reached. Diocesan officials said they had not yet seen the suit and do not comment anyway on pending litigation. The plaintiff's attorney, Patrick Noaker of St. Paul, Minn., said his client was an Illinois man, now 36, who is employed as a manager and married with a son and daughter. Noaker said that when his client was a boy, he mowed the parish lawn at St. Theresa's Catholic Church and School in Salem, Ill., where Kownacki was pastor from 1979 to 1986. Noaker said the youth was "groomed" for sexual contact and abused from age 12 to 14. The suit alleges that the sexual molestation started in 1979 and went on for three years. It alleges that the late Albert R. Zuroweste, then bishop of Belleville, knew Kownacki was a molester because of previous complaints by a young woman's family. The current Belleville bishop, Wilton D. Gregory, barred Kownacki from active ministry in January 1995, three months before the woman filed suit. Kownacki has since retired. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the woman could not pursue her suit because of the statute of limitations. The time for filing such a suit was usually two years from when the victim turns 18. Noaker said his client hoped to overcome that legal barrier by two means: * The suit charges "fraudulent concealment" of allegations by the diocese, saying it transferred the priest rather than removing him. * The plaintiff was so overwhelmed by his attacker's religious and cultural authority that he did not realize the harm he had suffered until last year. (In May, the Illinois Legislature enacted a law that extends the length of time for both filing criminal complaints and civil suits alleging sexual abuse of a child. Now, criminal charges may be filed until the victim turns 38, and civil suits could be filed for up to five years after the plaintiff "discovers that the act of childhood sexual abuse occurred.") Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests read a brief statement by the plaintiff. It says, "After just over a year ago learning about the church's involvement in this crime, I felt that not doing anything was the same as condoning their actions." It adds, "If the church had done the right thing after the first problems, he (Kownacki) would have never been sent to Salem and I would have never met him." Another suit against Kownacki is pending. It was filed 11 months ago by James Wisniewski, now 42, who charged that he was sexually abused, also at St. Theresa's, from 1973 to 1978, starting when he was 12. Noaker said his firm had handled nearly 1,000 suits involving sexual abuse. "It appears we are making some progress in protecting children," he said. "We can't move forward without looking backward," he added. David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network, said the Belleville Diocese had handled such problems better than most but, "like every diocese, can do better." He suggested that Gregory, the current bishop, visit each of the eight parishes where Kownacki served.
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