FLORIDA
New Times
BY CHRIS JOSEPH
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015
A 41-year-old man who served under a Catholic Priest in a Pembroke Pines Parish as a boy in the 1980s has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami for sexual abuse. The civil lawsuit claims that several boys at the parish were also abused, and that while the abuses were reported to the Archdiocese of Miami, the reports went ignored.
The priest, now retired, is Father Harry Ringenberger, who served at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church, was eventually re-assigned to a new parish within the Archdiocese of Miami, and then worked at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale until he retired in 2014.
The lawsuit, filed in Broward County court this week, claims that Ringerberger, who is now 89, befriended the victim, identified only as John Doe, when the boy was 14. One evening, Ringerberger took John out to dinner, and then brought him back to his home which was located in the church rectory at St. Maximilian Kolbe. There, Ringerberger allegedly stripped naked and the two began to wrestle.
The suit claims that Ringerberger then had John lay on top of him, while “Ringerberger rubbed his penis against John’s until Ringerberger ejaculated.” The suit goes on to say Ringerberger then continued to sexually abuse John.
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