NEW YORK (NY)
Newsweek
Sept. 17, 2019
By Aila Slisco
A lawsuit by a former priest is seeking punitive damages for “severe humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress” after being outed as an accused child molester by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
J. Patrick Foley of Sacramento, California, claims that the Diocese promoted a “reckless disregard for the truth” in a September 12 filing with San Diego Superior Court. In 2018, Foley was one of eight men added to a list of Catholic clergy believed by the Diocese to be responsible for sexually abusing children. Foley’s lawsuit alleges that his inclusion on the list amounts to publishing “false and defamatory material.”
Foley is hardly the first priest from the area accused of child sex abuse. The San Diego Diocese previously settled a 2007 lawsuit claiming child molestation by a further 48 priests under their purview.
Foley was ordained by the San Diego Diocese in 1973, and remained “attached” to the Diocese after moving to the Sacramento area in 1991.
According to the website of the Diocese of Sacramento, Foley is accused of having abused two boys in the early 1990s while assigned to Christian Brothers High School. In 1995 he was “directed to not engage in ministry.” In 1997, his faculties were “formally denied” and he was told to withdraw from the Diocese.
NBC 7 San Diego reports that Foley was first accused of inappropriately touching a child in 1989 while providing emergency medical care.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.