June 25, 2005

Details emerge in abuse lawsuit

ALABAMA
Mobile Register

Saturday, June 25, 2005
By STEVE MYERS
Staff Reporter
Documents filed in a lawsuit against a priest who once served at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery provide insight into the handling of a 1994 sex abuse allegation against him, as well as a more recent one involving a boy in New York.

The documents indicate that church officials in New York knew that the Rev. Barry E. Ryan had been accused of molesting a minor while stationed at Maxwell. A monsignor recommended that Ryan undergo therapy, but didn't order him to do so after Ryan said he didn't think he was up to it.

Instead, the church granted his request for a leave of absence from the priesthood, and he moved to Florida, where he became a public high school teacher.

Ryan, 57, remained in Florida until the spring of 2003, when the Mobile Register contacted him and inquired about the sex abuse allegation from a decade ago. Shortly thereafter, the former Teacher of the Year notified his employer that he was taking a medical leave of absence and went back to New York. A church official has said that Ryan has a terminal case of cancer.

While in New York, he abused a 6-year-old boy. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual conduct against a child and is supposed to start serving a sentence next month.

Ryan's name was one of several that came up in 2003 when Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. asked the Archdiocese of Mobile for information on any priest suspected of sexual misconduct.

Posted by kshaw at June 25, 2005 06:55 AM