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	Victim of Pedophile Priest Sues Church Officials Associated Press, carried in Newsday September 20, 2007 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--churchsexabuse0920sep20,0,5314375.story Wilmington, Del. - Attorneys for a young man sexually abused by a former Catholic priest who was also his great-uncle sued church officials Thursday, alleging that they knew for decades that the priest was abusing children but did nothing to warn the public, or even his own family. Francis DeLuca, 77, was sentenced by a Syracuse, N.Y., judge earlier this month to 60 days in jail for repeatedly molesting his grandnephew, Michael Dingle, 18. DeLuca, who pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse, two counts of third-degree sexual abuse, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, returned to his hometown of Syracuse in the early 1990s after being dismissed from public ministry in Delaware, where he was accused of sexually abusing a minor 30 years earlier. He was arrested in October after Dingle told his parents he had been sexually abused by DeLuca from the time he was 12 or 13 until the age of 17. DeLuca served in Wilmington for 35 years. Dingle's attorneys allege that officials with the Diocese of Wilmington knew as early as 1958 that DeLuca was molesting young boys but did nothing to stop him, deciding instead to shuffle him around from parish to parish. Shortly after DeLuca was arrested in New York last fall, Wilmington Bishop Michael Saltarelli released the names of 20 diocesan priests, including DeLuca, against whom the diocese had substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse. Attorney Stephen Neuberger said diocesan officials had a duty to warn church and civil authorities in New York about DeLuca but failed to do so, and that they failed to use reasonable care to protect children from him. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, church officials in Wilmington allowed DeLuca to move to Syracuse, citing "reasons of personal health." After moving back home, DeLuca began inviting Dingle for overnight visits to his apartment, where he eventually began molesting him, sometimes while playing hardcore pornographic videos, according to the lawsuit filed in Kent County Superior Court. "DeLuca was trusted completely by plaintiff's parents because he was a priest," the complaint states. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are retired Wilmington bishop Robert Mulvee, current bishop Michael Saltarelli, Msgr. Thomas Cini, and the diocese itself. "Bishop Mulvee, Bishop Saltarelli and Father Cini all have blood on their hands," Neuberger said. "This lawsuit will hold them personally accountable for their conscious decision to protect their institution at the expense of a young child's innocence." "My client's a wreck; he's traumatized by this," Neuberger added. "He was a priest. He was a family member. What makes it worse is that they knew." According to the lawsuit, the abuse stopped in 2006 after the boy told his father. "We're not suing for the crime itself, were suing for the breach of the civil law, the breach of the duty to warn," Neuberger explained. Bob Krebs, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, said officials had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. "The diocese continues to work and pray for healing of all victims of childhood sexual abuse," Krebs said. In July, former federal appeals court attorney Robert Quill, who claims that he, too, was molested by DeLuca, became the first person to sue under a new Delaware law allowing victims of child sexual abuse to seek damages for abuse that occurred years ago. Quill, 52, of Marathon, Fla., filed a federal lawsuit with the help of Neuberger's firm alleging that, as a teenager, he was repeatedly molested by DeLuca. In June, Delaware lawmakers eliminated a two-year statute of limitations for lawsuits by future victims of childhood sexual abuse. The new law also allows a two-year "lookback" period under which lawsuits previously barred by the statute of limitations could be brought anew. If the defendant was employed by a public or private entity that owed a duty of care to the victim, the institution also could be held liable, but only upon a finding of gross negligence. Neuberger said the lookback provision applies only to alleged abusers and the institutions that employed them, not other individuals within those institutions. Since Dingle was abused as recently as last year, church officials can be sued in their individual capacities for his injuries, he said. "This is the first case where we can sue the bishops personally," said Neuberger, adding that his firm plans to file at least eight other lawsuits involving sexual abuse by DeLuca. "DeLuca was prolific in his child abuse," he said.
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