STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel
By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Two of the highest-ranking officials from the Stockton Catholic Diocese — Vicar General Monsignor Richard Ryan and Chancellor Barbara Thiella — took the witness stand Friday as the third week of Father Michael Kelly’s civil trial came to a close.
Kelly, pastor of St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford for the past eight years, was tentatively scheduled to defend himself in the lawsuit filed by a former altar boy, but it appears that Kelly won’t testify until at least Tuesday.
While being questioned by the plaintiff’s attorney, John Manly, Ryan said he would consider a priest tickling children to be “inappropriate,” depending on the circumstances. Several witnesses in the civil trial said that Kelly tickled children aggressively, though some of them said they didn’t see anything sexual about it.
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