Portland archbishop apologizes after abuse claim

OREGON
Miami Herald

The Associated Press

REEDSPORT, Ore. — The archbishop of Portland issued an apology that was read at Sunday Mass to a woman who settled a lawsuit claiming she was sexually abused by a priest in the 1980s.

Carolee Horning, 41, was at St. John the Apostle Parish in Reedsport when the letter from Archbishop John Vlazny was read, the Eugene Register-Guard (bit.ly/Nxzh51) reported.

The priest, the Rev. Edward Altstock, was a family friend when he headed the parish from 1984 to 1986, and Horning was a teenager who had been an altar girl.

She said she was flattered by gifts and attention from such a figure of authority, and he pursued her for years, even visiting her in Corvallis when she was a student at Oregon State University.

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