GREENSBURG (PA)
Times-Leader
Associated Press
GREENSBURG, Pa. - A man has accused a priest who died more than a decade ago of sexually abusing him, according to a lawsuit filed against a diocese and a retired bishop.
The 52-year-old man, whose name wasn't revealed in the lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County court, accused the late Rev. Francis Lesniak of abusing him in the mid-1960s, when the man was a 12- or 13-year-old boy.
According to the lawsuit, the abuse happened when Lesniak worked at the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg's St. Stanislaus Church in Calmut and the boy was a parishioner.
The boy was invited to stay overnight at the rectory, and Lesniak allegedly fondled him while he slept, the lawsuit said. When the boy woke up he was allegedly forced to fondle Lesniak in return, according to the lawsuit.
Lesniak died in February 1991.