ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Sentinel
Mark I. Pinsky | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 13, 2005
Two men who say they were victims of clergy sex abuse three decades ago have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, charging that the bishop at the time covered up the molestation by transferring the accused priest among local churches.
The two lawsuits allege that Bishop William Borders, who later became archbishop of Baltimore, knew of the accusations against the Rev. Vernon Uhran but did nothing to stop the abuse. Instead, Uhran was transferred from parish to parish, "where he continued to have unfettered access to minors and was permitted to have frequent sleepovers in the rectories," according to the suits, which seek a total of $10 million in damages.
The suit is the first to allege that Borders had knowledge of sexual abuse by a priest but failed to act appropriately. Previous suits have made similar contentions against bishops Thomas Grady and Norbert Dorsey, who followed Borders' tenure in the Orlando diocese.
During the past three decades, the Diocese of Orlando has paid out millions of dollars in settlements in suits involving at least 10 priests. In several cases, the suits alleged that the diocese covered up the attacks and quietly transferred the accused priests, but none of those cases has reached a jury.
The unidentified men who sued Monday in Orange County Circuit Court charge that beginning in the mid-1960s, Uhran abused them and others through 1974 at rectories at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Altamonte Springs; the Church of the Resurrection in Lakeland; and on a cross-country trip in a recreational vehicle.