Church settles abuse case

New Mexican
May 21, 2014

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/briefs/local-news-in-brief-may/article_cfa643bf-3018-5d5b-adcc-b87f8dc2e7dc.html

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe reached a settlement last month with a 36--year--old man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the early to mid--1980s.

The man’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, said the financial settlement was six figures and would cover therapy costs. Under the settlement, the archdiocese is not admitting any guilt.

The unidentified man, who now lives in Oregon, claimed that when he was 7 or 8 years old, the Rev. Irving F. Klister, who died in 1997, sexually abused him at least four times while he was at confession. The man said the abuse took place at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Maxwell, N.M.

Klister, who was named in another sexual abuse lawsuit in Texas, was ordained in the Diocese of Superior, in Wisconsin. According to his 1997 obituary, he came to the Southwest for health reasons in the early 1950s and was accepted into the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. He was priest at Cristo Rey Catholic Church in Santa Fe and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Springer, N.M.