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	Delaware: Seventh Lawsuit Claims Abuse by Priest By Beth Miller News Journal June 27, 2008 http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080627/NEWS01/80627039/1002 WILMINGTON — A seventh sexual-abuse lawsuit related to the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca was filed today against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, this one by a 60-year-old Delaware man who says DeLuca abused him for two years starting in 1961. Michael Sowden filed the complaint in Kent County Superior Court against the diocese and St. John the Beloved Church, claiming they knew DeLuca was abusing boys but allowed him to continue ministering. Sowden says he was a 12-year-old altar boy at St. John the Beloved when the abuse began. The suit says the alleged abuse caused Sowden problems in relationships, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, flashbacks and loss of his religious faith. The suit is the fifth in a five-week flurry of DeLuca-related filings. None of the five has named DeLuca as a defendant, but attorney Thomas S. Neuberger, who represents all of the plaintiffs, has said DeLuca will be added to the suits if settlement negotiations with the diocese fail. Robert Quill of Marathon, Fla., was the first to file suit against DeLuca after Delaware adopted the 2007 Child Victim's Act, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse and opened a two-year "window," during which previously time-barred cases could be filed. Quill's suit was settled for an undisclosed amount earlier this year. DeLuca ministered in the diocese for more than three decades, retiring to Syracuse in 1993 when allegations of child sexual abuse were raised against him again. He was arrested in 2006, pleaded guilty to abusing a teenage relative in Syracuse over several years, and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. "We expect that, when placed under oath, DeLuca will admit molesting Mike Sowden, as he did in Syracuse when he admitted to the police that he molested Mike Dingle," Neuberger said in a prepared statement. "This lawsuit is about getting a similar admission and a public apology from the Diocese to my client, his parents and siblings for the failure to protect a 12-year-old child in its care." Diocese attorney Anthony G. Flynn said church authorities were aware of Sowden's claims because of a press conference he held last year to voice accusations against a North Carolina priest he says abused him while he was at a camp operated by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in Maryland. In the course of that press conference, Sowden named DeLuca as another of his abusers. The North Carolina priest was subsequently "cleared" in an investigation by the Diocese of Charlotte and the Oblates. Sowden has not filed suit against that priest, but at the time Neuberger called the Charlotte investigation a "sham," saying authorities there never interviewed Sowden.
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