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	Church Scandal: Convicted Priest Target of Sex Abuse Lawsuit Associated Press, carried in Daily Times May 30, 2008 http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080530/NEWS01/80530025/1002 DOVER — A New Castle County man filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that he was sexually abused as a child by a priest already convicted of molestation. Attorneys for the 58-year-old former Marine filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym "John Doe" to protect his identity. Named as defendants in the Kent County Superior Court lawsuit are the Diocese of Wilmington and St. John the Beloved Church in Wilmington. The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff repeatedly was abused in the 1960s by the Rev. Francis DeLuca, when the victim was an altar boy and DeLuca was an assistant pastor at St. John. DeLuca, 77, was sentenced by a New York judge last year to 60 days in jail for repeatedly molesting his 18-year-old grandnephew. In March, attorneys for DeLuca reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed in Wilmington by Florida resident Robert Quill, who claimed that he and other boys were molested by DeLuca in the 1960s. The lawsuit filed Friday alleges that then-Bishop Michael Hyle was told in 1962 that DeLuca was a child molester by the father of one of his victims, but that the Diocese nevertheless allowed DeLuca to continue serving as a priest for three more decades while continuing to abuse young children. Doe alleges that he was molested in the rectory at St. John, and at hotels in Baltimore, New York City and Salisbury, Md., during altar boy trips. According to the lawsuit, the Rev. Thomas Cini, vicar general of the diocese, personally apologized to Doe in 2004 for the diocese's "cover-up" of DeLuca's behavior. Shortly after DeLuca was arrested in 2006 in his hometown of Syracuse, N.Y. on charges involving his grandnephew, Wilmington Bishop Michael Saltarelli released the names of 20 diocesan priests, including DeLuca, against whom the diocese had confirmed allegations of child sexual abuse. In settling with Quill in February, the diocese and St. Elizabeth's church in Wilmington apologized for the abuse Quill suffered, and to the people of the parish and diocese for DeLuca's actions. Doe's attorney, Thomas Neuberger, who also represented Quill, said Doe has struggled for years with anger, depression, alcoholism and failed social relationships. The lawsuit was filed under a law enacted last year that created a two-year "lookback" window under which claims of childhood sexual abuse that had been barred by the statute of limitations could be brought anew. The lookback provision for past incidents of sexual abuse expires in July 2009. "Victims whose health would be endangered by revealing their names can sue anonymously to avoid further injury and humiliation," said Neuberger, who has represented several victims of priest sex abuse. "We expect a dozen or more child abuse victims to use this method to allow them to seek to hold their abusers and enablers accountable and to seek financial compensation for their injuries, all while still preserving their privacy."
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