May 06, 2005

Diocese settles sex abuse lawsuit

SCRANTON (PA)
Times Leader

By MARK GUYDISH

SCRANTON – The Diocese of Scranton has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a civil suit that accused two priests of sexual misconduct with a minor, according to the attorney for the family that filed the suit. That’s only part of the total settlement of $454,550.

As a result of the settlement, the 3-year-old case was dismissed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

The case was filed in March 2002 by a man who, in court documents, was identified as John Doe. Doe contended that, as a minor, he had been sexually molested by the Revs. Eric Ensey and Carlos Urrutigoity, two of the founding priests of the Society of St. John in Shohola, Pike County.

The civil suit named the two priests, the society, the diocese, former Bishop James Timlin and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter as defendants. The Fraternity of St. Peter runs St. Gregory’s Academy, a school for boys in Elmhurst, where the Society of St. John was initially housed after Timlin gave permission for them to set up in the diocese.

Posted by kshaw at May 6, 2005 05:34 AM