OMAHA (NEBRASKA)
Associated Press
September 3, 2020
By Margery A. Beck
A Roman Catholic priest is suing the Omaha Archdiocese for defamation nearly two years after he was removed from his parish in northeast Nebraska and listed among a group of clergy found to be credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
The Rev. Andrew Syring says in the lawsuit that his career and life have been in tatters since the archdiocese abruptly removed him from public ministry in West Point in October 2018. A month later, the archdiocese published his name on the list of clergy abusers.
Syring had been an ordained priest for two years when he was accused in 2013 of boundary violations that included “publicly hugging and kissing minors on the cheek,” his lawsuit says. Syring vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and after a psychological evaluation and investigations by the church and law enforcement that found no criminal misconduct, he said, he was returned to public ministry.
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