NORTHAMPTON (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette
By BOB DUNN @BDGazette
Thursday, July 11, 2013
NORTHAMPTON — A 20-year-old Chesterfield man has filed suit against the Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Hampshire Superior Court alleging he was sexually abused by a priest serving in Chicopee, and that church officials should have taken steps to protect the child.
Named as defendants in the suit are the Springfield Diocese, the former Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell, and a priest identified only as Father R. or Father Rick, who served at St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicopee.
The alleged abuser is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The Diocese says there is no record of the man accused of the abuse ever serving as a priest in their organization.
Because of confusion over the identity of the allege abuser, the Gazette is not naming him at this time.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court, alleges that over a four-year span beginning when the plaintiff was 13, he was abused “over 50 times” and at several locations, including at a Northampton home, St. Patrick’s Parish, and at the Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer, a religious retreat in Jamaica, Vt.
When reached by telephone Thursday morning, the attorney for the plaintiff, John J. Stobierski of Greenfield, said he isn’t prepared to comment on the case now, but plans to release a statement sometime in the future.
Mark Dupont, spokesman for the Diocese, said there is no record of a priest by the name of the one in the lawsuit within the Diocese.
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