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	Man Sues Chicago Archdiocese over Alleged Abuse By Lisa Donovan Chicago Sun-Times October 31, 2011 http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/8534114-418/man-sues-chicago-archdiocese-over-alleged-abuse.html An unnamed man is suing the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, alleging that he was sexually abused as a child over a six-year period by a therapist working in a church counseling center. The man alleges in the negligence lawsuit that the abuse occurred between 1977 and 1983 at the hands of therapist William Groendyke, who worked in the church’s then-counseling arm, Catholic Family Consultation Service. “Groendyke, as part of a continuing series of acts, raped, sexually touched, rubbed, molested and/or abused the plaintiff numerous times,” court papers state. The suit contends the church looked the other way, even though officials knew Groendyke, who was not a priest and worked in the counseling center from 1969 to 1985, had been accused of sexually abusing children in his care. That includes when Groendyke was a graduate student at Indiana University, the suit states. Groendyke had a 1956 Indiana conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The suit says the church should have reported him to authorities and “removed him from ministry.” “[D]espite having received reports of Groendyke’s abuse of. . . numerous minors while he was their employee and/or agent, defendant archdiocese and bishop failed to remove Groendyke from ministry or to otherwise restrict his access to children,” the suit states. In the late 1980s, Groendyke was acquitted in three separate criminal cases of abusing three youths undergoing therapy at the counseling center. The man who filed the civil case on Monday is not believed to be among those three youths, according to his attorney Jamie M. Trapp. He said he believes Groendyke has since died. An archdiocesan spokeswoman said church officials hadn’t seen the suit and couldn’t comment.
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