BELLEVILLE (IL)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BELLEVILLE • Raymond Kownacki, the subject of court settlements over sexual abuse inflicted while he was a Catholic priest, has been laicized, the Diocese of Belleville confirmed.
Often called defrocking, the action means Kownacki no longer is a priest. The action was effective Jan. 11, the diocese says.
The diocese removed him from public ministry in 1995 after reviewing allegations of abuse by former altar boys and a woman who said he had raped her when she was a teen. Only the Vatican can laicize a priest.
Kownacki, 78, was ordained in 1960 and served at parishes in Washington Park, Valmeyer, Salem and St. Francisville, Ill. In 2011, the diocese paid $6.3 million in damages from a civil-court trial verdict in 2008 for his abuse of an altar boy in the 1970s. The diocese settled two other cases against him in 2012.
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