JACKSON (MS)
Clarion Ledger
Oct. 9, 2019
A civil lawsuit has been filed against the Biloxi diocese, a Mississippi church and the estate of the Rev. John Scanlon.
Scanlon’s name was not on lists of credibly accused priests with Mississippi ties.
Lawyer argues that statue of limitation has not run out, since man only remembering now.
When he was 12, Robert McGowen went to catechism class. His mother was Southern Baptist, but his father was Catholic, so he attended classes at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hattiesburg.
It was the mid-1980s and his priest was the Rev. John Scanlon.
Some days, McGowen’s dad would be late picking him up from class. When that happened, McGowen said, Scanlon would take him into the rectory. For 35 years, McGowen said he repressed the memories of what happened to him.
Now he can’t forget.
His attorney, John Hawkins, believes McGowen’s repressed memories of sexual abuse have delayed the statute of limitations. Under that unique approach, a civil suit was filed last month against Scanlon’s estate, Church of Sacred Heart and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi, which the church falls under.
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