PUEBLO (CO)
TheDenverChannel.com
PUEBLO, Colo. -- A sexual abuse lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo was the first to name a former priest who committed suicide following allegations he molested a teenager.
Andrew A. Burke, a pastor at St. Piux X in Pueblo, left the ministry around 1973 due to a "psycho-sexual behavior disorder," according to the lawsuit.
Burke shot himself in the heart Sept. 21, coroner's officials said. His wife found him dead in their yard. He was holding a newly-purchased gun that still had the price tag on it.
Last year officials of the diocese told police a prisoner alleged that in the 1970s, Burke would make him strip down to his underwear, blindfold him, tickle him, then take a wet towel from a freezer and lay it across his chest.
The man alleged Burke then would masturbate or straddle him while rubbing his genitals against him, sometimes giving him alcohol.