HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News
Oct. 10, 2019
By Ivey DeJesus
A newly filed lawsuit against the Diocese of Harrisburg underscores the debate over the argument that victims compensation funds barred scores of people who had been sexually abused as children by employees of Catholic dioceses.
In his lawsuit, Patrick J. Duggan of Harrisburg claims that starting when he was 13, his history teacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School began to ply him with alcohol and drugs to then sexually molest and rape him.
Duggan, 58, claims that teacher Ronald Stewart, who lived next to the school playground and across the church, continued to abuse him until he was 17. Stewart died in 2010.
In addition to the diocese, the lawsuit names former bishop Kevin Rhoades and current Bishop Ronald Gainer.
Duggan was barred from making a claim with the victims compensation fund that the diocese established in the wake of the 2018 grand jury report that uncovered widespread and systemic sexual abuse of minors across seven decades across the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania. St. Francis of Assisi is within the Diocese of Harrisburg.
The diocese’s compensation fund – like the other programs established across the state – narrowly defined eligibility in the program to victims claiming they had been sexually abused as children by priests. Victims claiming that their predators were teachers, nuns or other employees were barred from making claims.
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