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	Lawsuit Says Priest Caused Teen’s Suicide By Michael Mahoney 20 Pounds of Headlines September 7, 2011 http://20poundsofheadlines.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/lawsuit-says-priest-caused-teens-suicide/ The parents of a Kansas City teenager area are accusing a Catholic priest, Monsignor Thomas O’Brien sexually abusing their son. They say those acts lead to their son, Brian, to taking his own life in 1983.. The new lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Jackson County. The boy’s parents, Donald and Rosemary Teeman say they only learned about their son’s problems when another man stepped forward earlier this summer. The suit says the most of the acts happened many years ago in the Nativity Catholic parish in Independence. According to a news release from The Survivors Network of those abuse Abuses by Priests, (SNAP), “ The suit says O’Brien would make boys “perform oral sex and mutual masturbation on each other, then require them to perform those acts on him” and “following the sexual encounters, he would require them to change into their robes, prepare communion, and serve at the mass.” The suit also charges that “O’Brien forced silence on (boys) by telling them that they would be kicked out of the Catholic Church, they would go directly to hell and their parents would disown them.” Msgr O’Brien has been a target of abuse complaints for nearly 40 years. SNAP says the priest continues to live in the area and believed to be near 80 years old now. Last week, a report commissioned by the Kansas City diocese of the Catholic Church found the local church did not follow its own rules and procedures in handling the abuse charges against Fr. Michael Tierney. He was eventually removed as a pastor at a local church. The report found more serious problems in the handling of the abuse charges lodged against Catholic priest, Fr. Shawn Ratigan. He now faces state and federal charges of child abuse and possession of child pornography. The scandal surrounding the Ratigan case has created a scandal in the local diocese that has led SNAP to be much more critical of the Kansas City Diocese. It is believed that both local and federal investigators may be continuing to look at the local Catholic Church.
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