BishopAccountability.org
	Lawsuits Filed against Seminary Alleging Officials Knew of Abuse The Associated Press, carried in KGW [Washington] March 19, 2005 Two lawsuits have been filed against a Northwest seminary, alleging that officials there were told by a former priest that he had molested boys at its now-defunct St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore. Attorneys representing 30 alleged victims of the former priest, Patrick G. O'Donnell, last week sued the Sulpician Seminary of the Northwest, which operated St. Thomas, and the Associated Sulpicians of the United States, based in Baltimore. The complaints say O'Donnell told seminary officials he had molested boys there between 1968 and 1971. A call to the Associated Sulpicians was not immediately returned Saturday. The seminary sent O'Donnell to sexual deviancy counseling, but did not prevent his becoming a priest. O'Donnell led a parish in Spokane and worked as a Boy Scout chaplain, a youth director for the diocese and director of a diocesan youth basketball league, said Seattle attorney Michael Pfau, who filed the lawsuits. The Sulpicians wrote glowing recommendations for O'Donnell's ordination, Pfau said, telling the Spokane bishop that he was "good priestly material." "Throughout his years at the defendant's seminary, O'Donnell and the defendant labored together over whether in light of his pedophilia it was appropriate for him to seek ordination as a priest," the lawsuit says. "Despite knowing of his deviant sexual compulsions towards boys, the Sulpicians failed to report O'Donnell to the civil authorities, failed to warn his victims or their parents and failed to limit his contact with children." He was removed from active ministry in 1985, and became a child and family psychologist in Bellevue, east of Seattle. O'Donnell, now 62, has been accused of abusing boys between 1970 and 1985 in various locations including the Seattle area, Spokane and Couer D'Alene, Idaho, where he often took boys on retreats. The statute of limitations barred criminal charges against O'Donnell. None of the abuse allegations were linked to his work as a psychologist. Also among those named as plaintiffs are relatives of Timothy Corrigan, who — after reading media reports of allegations against O'Donnell, said he too had been abused by the priest, in Spokane between 1974 and 1976. A few hours later, Corrigan committed suicide by throwing himself under a moving train. Other lawsuits filed by Pfau on behalf of O'Donnell's victims stalled after the Catholic Archdiocese of Spokane filed for bankruptcy last year. O'Donnell voluntarily forfeited his license to practice psychology in January 2004, after the state Health Department received complaints that he had sexually assaulted two boys in 1976.