PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Patch [Baltimore, MD]
April 18, 2023
By Justin Heinze
Over recent years, the Archdiocese helped cover up the checkered past of a priest who sexually abused at least one woman, a lawsuit states.
A former local priest sexually abused at least one woman for years and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia helped to cover it up for over a decade, a new lawsuit filed Tuesday claims.
Kevin Barry McGoldrick, who served at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in south Philadelphia from 2003 to 2013, may have also abused other individuals, the suit states, and advocates are urging victims to come forward.
While the victim named in the lawsuit says she was abused after McGoldrick left Philadelphia, while he was serving in Tennessee, lawyers claim the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was aware of McGoldrick’s checkered past.
“Our client suffered horrific abuse at the hands of McGoldrick,” Stewart Ryan, one of the victim’s attorneys with the local firm Bucci & Kent, said Tuesday. “When she attempted to obtain information from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia regarding McGoldrick’s prior accusations of sexual misconduct, she was intentionally misdirected so that the Church could continue its plan to conceal from her and the public what it knew about McGoldrick’s history.”
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia declined a request for comment from Patch and inquiries into the Archdiocese’s handling of McGoldrick’s case. “We would not comment on pending litigation,” a spokesperson told Patch.
The suit states that the victim was sexually assaulted by McGoldrick, her spiritual advisor, at Aquinas College in Nashville from 2014 to 2018.
However, the Archdiocese had opened an investigation into separate claims of sexual abuse by McGoldrick in 2013, immediately before his transfer out of Philadelphia, the suit states.
“The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has repeatedly covered up its knowledge to protect McGoldrick and the Church,” Ryan added. “The representations made by the Archdiocese regarding McGoldrick’s fitness to serve were blatantly false given the prior knowledge of McGoldrick’s patterns of inappropriate relationships with vulnerable females.”
The victim named in the suit, now 28, was a college student who initially saw McGoldrick as a friend and spiritual advisor. The suit states that McGoldrick took advantage of the power dynamic to groom her, inviting her and other women to his home for dinner and drinks.
On one of these nights in particular, McGoldrick waited until the victim’s friends had left and pressured her to overindulge in drinking until she got sick and threw up, attorneys said.
McGoldrick then sexually assaulted her, and the assault continued even after the victim passed out drunk, the suit states.
The next day, McGoldrick allegedly apologized and blamed her attractiveness for his behavior, according to lawyers.
Ridden with guilt and suicidal victims, the suit details how the woman “relentlessly inquired” with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia about McGoldrick’s past, and whether he had sexually assaulted other women. The suit says that the Archdiocese refused to answer her questions, misleading and deceiving her.
But McGoldrick’s past eventually came to light: he had been reassigned at least seven times, and suspended twice, due to sexual abuse cases, the lawsuit states.
It wasn’t until Jan. 2020, 17 years after McGoldrick started as a priest, that Archbishop Charles Chaput found the allegations credible and asked Pope Francis for a special dispensation dismissing McGoldrick from his duties.
In addition to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and Aquinas College, McGoldrick also served at Overbook School and St. Cecilia Academy, also in Nashville, from 2017-2020. Attorneys are actively seeking out other possible victims of McGoldrick. Contact the survivors hotline at 855-382-3385 with any information.