ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 24, 2024
By Jesse Bogan
[See also the text of the lawsuit.]
Twenty-five men and women, in a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in St. Louis Circuit Court, say Roman Catholic priests and nuns sexually abused them and that church officials failed to do anything to prevent it.
The plaintiffs mention more than 30 clergy in their arguments, while naming just the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski and John Doe I as defendants.
“This shameless cover-up spanned decades and allowed various clergy and other employees to access and sexually abuse numerous children,” the lawsuit alleges, adding: “Defendants knew or should have known that Abusers were unsuitable for the positions they held.”
Todd Mathews, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said by telephone that he was in the process of filing similar lawsuits on behalf of about 35 additional plaintiffs who say they were abused in St. Louis, Jefferson, St. Charles and Franklin counties. Those cases weren’t yet available for public view late Wednesday.
“Our survivors are showing tremendous courage in bringing these claims to light against the archdiocese,” Mathews said. “We are alleging sexual abuse at the hands of priests and other members of the archdiocese.”
He said plaintiffs are mentioned by their initials only “for their safety.”
In the St. Louis lawsuit, defendants describe abuses that allegedly happened as far back as 1945, as well as more recent. A.A., now in his early 20s, claims a priest — “whose full identity Plaintiff expects to learn through the course of discovery” — sexually abused him in 2014 or 2015 at St. Ambrose Catholic Church.
Though Rozanski is relatively new to the archdiocese, the lawsuit alleges that the archbishop “ratified the abuse by the Abusers by continuing to place one or more of them in parishes even after receiving multiple reports of sexual misconduct.”
At least one of the alleged abusers recently retired from ministry.
Brecht Mulvihill, spokesman for the archdiocese, said in a brief statement, “We have not been served yet, and we need to review the suit.”
In July 2019, then-St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson released the names of 64 clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse or possessing child pornography. That list, which grew by five after additional investigation by the archdiocese, was released after an explosive grand jury report by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office in August 2018, detailing abuse of more than 1,000 people by hundreds of priests in the state and reigniting tensions over cover-ups of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Advocates had also long called for the St. Louis archdiocese’s accounting of credibly accused clergy, particularly since the archdiocese was court-ordered in 2014 to turn over a matrix of 240 complaints against 115 priests and other church employees as part of a lawsuit filed by an alleged victim of the since-defrocked Rev. Joseph Ross.
The archdiocese’s list stemmed from an internal review of allegations dating to the 1950s, a time frame that best reflects the current geographic footprint of the archdiocese in eastern Missouri, which has fallen below 500,000 members in St. Louis and 10 surrounding counties.
Out of respect for victims, the archdiocese said then, that it would not provide the names of parishes where the disgraced clergy members had served, would not say when the accused priests and deacons were removed from ministry, and would not disclose numbers of victims.
Some of the names on the archdiocese list are mentioned as alleged abusers in the new round of lawsuits filed Wednesday.
More than 30 clergy abusers are named in the narrative of the St. Louis lawsuit, including some who have been previously charged or sued. In some victim narratives, the priest or nun is only identified by initials or a nickname, but at least 12 names were publicly identified by the archdiocese when it released names of credibly accused clergy in July 2019.
The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages “as allowed by law.”
Names of clergy released by Archdiocese of St. Louis in 2019
The Archdiocese of St. Louis in July 2019 released 64 names of clergy who were accused of sexual abuse of minors. Five names were subsequently added. Several have since died.
Category 1 is archdiocesan clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Category 2 is clergy who were first accused after their death. Category 3 is clergy from other dioceses with substantiated allegations. Category 4 is clergy with substantiated allegations of possession of child pornography.
| NAME | CATEGORY | YEAR OF ORDINATION | YEAR OF DEATH | STATUS |
| Robert H. Babka | 1 | 1968 | 2013 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Dcn. Carl Beckman | 1 | 1986 | Removed from ministry | |
| James A. Beine | 1 | 1967 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Francis Blasé | 2 | 1941 | 1977 | Deceased |
| Albert Bockelmann | 2 | 1939 | 1975 | Deceased |
| Don G. Brinkman | 1 | 1967 | Removed from ministry | |
| Maurice Byrne | 1 | 1943 | 1993 | Deceased |
| John R. Campbell | 1 | 1958 | Removed from ministry | |
| Michael A. Campbell | 1 | 1979 | Removed from ministry | |
| Norman H. Christian | 1 | 1961 | 2004 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| John Condit | 2 | 1945 | 1994 | Deceased |
| Thomas T. Cooper | 1 | 1955 | 2003 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Walter Craig | 2 | 1923 | 1971 | Deceased |
| Hubert E. Creason | 1 | 1958 | 2006 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Vincent Duggan | 2 | 1940 | 1984 | Deceased |
| Romano J. Ferraro | 3 | 1960 | Removed from ministry; laicized |
| NAME | CATEGORY | YEAR OF ORDINATION | YEAR OF DEATH | STATUS |
| Alfred J. Fitzgerald | 1 | 1966 | Removed from ministry | |
| Mark Fleming | 3 | 1980 | Laicized | |
| Victor A. Frobas | 3 | 1966 | 1993 | Removed from ministry; laicized; deceased |
| James A. Funke | 1 | 1974 | 1993 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| George W. Galovich | 2 | 1971 | 2012 | Deceased |
| John J. Ghio | 1 | 1980 | 2020 | Removed from ministry |
| Glennon J. Goellner | 1 | 1950 | 2007 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| James P. Grady | 4 | 1977 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Thomas J. Graham | 1 | 1960 | 2019 | Removed from ministry; |
| James L. Gummersbach | 1 | 1954 | 2014 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Donald H. Heck | 1 | 1963 | 2015 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Kevin F. Hederman | 1 | 1975 | Removed from ministry | |
| Vincent A. Heier | 1 | 1977 | Removed from ministry; retired | |
| John P. Hess | 4 | 1983 | Removed from ministry | |
| Bernard Huhn | 1 | 1952 | 2000 | Ministry restricted; deceased |
| Dcn. Fred Hummel | 1 | 1986 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Robert F. Johnston | 1 | 1962 | 2021 | Removed from ministry; |
| John J. Kaske | 1 | 1956 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Jerome Keaty | 1 | 1962 | 1999 | Deceased |
| William A. Kelley | 1 | 1977 | 2013 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Louis Kerz | 1 | 1948 | 1985 | Deceased |
| Marvin C. Kopff | 1 | 1963 | 2006 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| NAME | CATEGORY | YEAR OF ORDINATION | YEAR OF DEATH | STATUS |
| Bryan M. Kuchar | 1 | 1993 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Frederick Lenczycki | 3 | 1972 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Joseph P. Lessard | 1 | 1952 | 2014 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Alexander W. Lippert | 1 | 1956 | 2000 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Robert Marquitz | 1 | 1964 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Aloysius J. Marschner | 1 | 1936 | 2004 | Ministry restricted; deceased |
| Dennis J. McClintock | 1 | 1973 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Roger McDonough | 1 | 1965 | 1985 | Deceased |
| Michael McGrath | 1 | 1974 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| James McLain | 2 | 1957 | 1998 | Deceased |
| Russell Obmann | 1 | 1951 | 2000 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Joseph M. O’Brien | 1 | 1957 | 2012 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Bernard O’Flynn | 2 | 1917 | 1981 | Deceased |
| James J. Pavlik | 1 | 1963 | 2015 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| William Poepperling | 2 | 1934 | 1983 | Deceased |
| Albert A. Rehme | 1 | 1956 | 2012 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Kenneth J. Roberts | 3 | 1966 | 2018 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Joseph D. Ross | 1 | 1969 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Lawrence C. Schierhoff | 1 | 1952 | 2008 | Removed from ministry; laicized |
| Michael L. Seidel | 1 | 1987 | Removed from ministry; laicized |
| NAME | CATEGORY | YEAR OF ORDINATION | YEAR OF DEATH | STATUS |
| James F. Stauber | 3 | 1959 | 2010 | Removed from ministry; deceased |
| Donald J. Straub | 1 | 1975 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Michael W. Toohey | 1 | 1967 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Leroy Valentine | 1 | 1977 | 2020 | Removed from ministry |
| William F. Vatterott | 4 | 2003 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Keith M. Westrich | 1 | 1981 | Removed from ministry | |
| John Wieberg | 2 | 1918 | 1963 | Deceased |
| Gary P. Wolken | 1 | 1993 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Robert J. Yim | 1 | 1974 | Removed from ministry; laicized | |
| Dennis B. Zacheis | 1 | 1975 | Removed from ministry | |
| Ralph Zimmer | 2 | 1943 | 1981 | Deceased |