KANSAS CITY (MO)
Topeka Capital-Journal
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two men have filed lawsuits alleging a late Roman Catholic priest sexually abused them in the 1950s.
Gary Lee Smith, of Topeka, and Hank Talbot, who lives in northwest Missouri, made the allegations against the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe in lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph last week in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The lawsuits, which seek unspecified monetary damages, claim that the diocese "ignored, covered up and concealed" Hoppe's behavior. He died in 2002.
The diocese had no record of complaints from the men, said the Rev. Robert A. Murphy, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, in a written statement released Monday afternoon.