WASHINGTON
Patch
By Greg Johnston
A victim of sexual abuse by a former youth minister at Kirkland’s St. John Vianney Church, who recently settled a case against the Archdiocese of Seattle, says he buried the issue for some two decades, but that finally confronting the abuse has allowed him to begin the healing process.
Rolfe Eckmann of Bothell, 41, also said he knows of 10 to 12 other victims and believes there were more — and that those who have not come forward are not being honest with themselves.
“I think a lot of people might ask, ‘Why now, after all these years?’” he said. “People who haven’t come forward really aren’t being honest with themselves. I feel good I came forward. I would never have gone to counseling for it if I hadn’t.”
Last week Eckmann and his attorney settled a lawsuit with the Archdiocese of Seattle for $635,000 over the sexual abuse, which occurred in the mid-1980s, when he was 13 and 14 years old, and went on for about a year. The youth minister, James R. Funnell, was fired by the archdiocese and was charged with sexual assault in 1989, pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
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