May 05, 2006

Two alleged sexual abuse victims sue Catholic order

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Margaret Zack, Star Tribune
Last update: May 04, 2006 – 9:38 PM

Two men who said they were abused by members of the Roman Catholic Crosier Order filed suit Thursday in Ramsey County District Court asking not for monetary damages but rather that the order release names of those accused of sexually abusing children.

Mark Mallinger, who said he was abused as a student at the Onamia, Minn., seminary in the 1970s, and Charles Spahn, 46, a former altar boy in Onamia who said he was abused from age 9 to 14, said they want to protect other children from going through what they did.

Spahn said he has been through treatment for drugs, alcohol and sexual addiction, as well as five years of therapy.

"The seminary at Onamia was truly a house of horrors," Mallinger said Thursday at a St. Paul news conference about the filing of the suit. "I know classmates were abused, and I know people suffered in silence and shame."

Posted by kshaw at May 5, 2006 11:00 AM