Lawsuit Accuses Diocese of Lafayette of Covering up Clergy Sex Abuse

By Kurt Darling
WIBC
September 27, 2018

https://www.wibc.com/news/local-news/lawsuit-accuses-diocese-lafayette-covering-clergy-sex-abuse

More sexual abuse claims against Catholic priests in Indiana, this time within the Diocese of Lafayette.

An anonymous man, who was a child of the St. Ann's parish in Montery, Indiana says he was abused by a Father James Grear during a Catholic youth rally at Mt. Carmel parish in Hamilton County in 1982.

A lawsuit says when the man, identified as John Doe, returned St. Ann's the following week he went to confession. The suit said then Bishop of Lafayette Raymond Gallagher was the one hearing confessions that day.

"At that time, Bishop Gallagher instructed John Doe to forget about the abuse, to ask God to forgive him, and not to disclose the abuse to anyone else," the lawsuit stated.

It also accuses the Diocese of Lafayette of knowing about previous claims of sexual abuse against children by Fr. Grear, but purposefully failing to inform parishioners within the Diocese.

The lawsuit also states that Grear's whereabouts are unknown.