Greensburg Diocese sued in second case involving Monessen priest’s alleged sexual misconduct

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

December 18, 2018

By Rich Cholodofsky

A second lawsuit has been filed against the Greensburg Catholic Diocese alleging it was aware of ongoing and repeated sexual conduct of its priests and failed to protect a teenage boy who claimed he was a victim of that abuse.

Identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe 2, the now 55-year-old Allegheny County man said he was repeatedly subjected to sexual contact from the Rev. John Tamilowski while attending St. Hyacinth Church in Monessen during the late 1970s.

According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Westmoreland County, the man claims he served as an alter boy at the church from the age of 14 to 18 when Tamilowski plied him with gifts, took him out for expensive dinners, gave him alcohol and traveled together on several overnight trips.

Tamilowski engaged him in sexually explicit conversations and later had improper sexual contact with the teenager “at least 25 times,” according to the lawsuit.

The court action filed by Pittsburgh lawyer Alan Perer also described sexual incidents in a Pittsburgh park and another at a “European” health spa.

The Greensburg diocese has not yet responded to a request for comment about the allegations raised in the new lawsuit.

Tamilowski served as a priest in several parishes for more than 40 years before he died in 1994.

He was named in a grand jury report released last summer in which Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro identified more than 300 predator priests suspected of having sexual contact with children.

That statewide investigation found that the Greensburg diocese knew of similar complaints against Tamilowski dating back to the 1960s but continued to allow him to serve as a priest and have contact with children.

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