Another Abuse Lawsuit Filed Against Former Fla. Bishop
Mass. man says he was paid to keep quiet
By Jim Salter
Originally published by The Associated Press, April 18, 2002
ST. LOUIS — Another sexual abuse lawsuit was filed Thursday against former Florida Bishop Anthony O'Connell, this one naming the Vatican and four dioceses as defendants.
The civil lawsuit on behalf of a Massachusetts man was the third alleging abuse by O'Connell while he served as rector at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo. It was the second lawsuit against O'Connell alleging violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by top officials in the Roman Catholic Church.
The lawsuit names dioceses in Jefferson City, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., Knoxville, Tenn., and West Palm Beach, Fla., in addition to the Vatican. And, it names all U.S. dioceses as unidentified co-conspirators.
Jeff Anderson, attorney for the accuser, said the Vatican was named because it had required each diocese to keep secret files about problem priests in cases that could expose the Catholic Church to scandals and lawsuits.
"Hopefully today we can begin a process of healing, prevention, exposure and perhaps someday, justice," Anderson said. "That's why we're here now—to break the silence, to break the secret."
The accuser's name was not used in the lawsuit, which was filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court. Both earlier lawsuits were filed in Hannibal, about 100 miles north of St. Louis. The suit does not specify monetary damages being sought.
The accuser is now 49 and a computer specialist living in Massachusetts. He alleges the abuse began when he was a seminarian in 1968. He said he continued to have a sexual relationship with O'Connell through 1993.
Anderson said that from 1998 through early this year, the man was paid at least $21,000 to keep the relationship secret. Anderson said it wasn't clear whether the money was paid by O'Connell or the church.
Jefferson City Diocese spokesman Mark Saucier said he had no knowledge of the suit.
O'Connell resigned as bishop of the West Palm Beach Diocese on March 8 after admitting that he abused seminarian Chris Dixon, now 40, in the 1970s. O'Connell served for several years at the boarding school seminary for high school-aged boys, which is part of the Jefferson City Diocese.
O'Connell was bishop in Knoxville for 10 years, leaving for Florida in 1998.
Thursday's lawsuit accuses the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese of inaction over the accuser's complaints to Kansas City Bishop Raymond Boland about O'Connell's misconduct, Anderson said.
The Knoxville Diocese had no immediate comment Thursday about the lawsuit. Messages left with diocese in Jefferson City, Kansas City-St. Joseph and West Palm Beach were not immediately returned.
The earlier RICO suit, filed March 22 by an unnamed former seminarian, now 34, alleged a conspiracy by U.S. bishops to keep abuse claims secret from police, prosecutors and the public.
That suit claimed the abuse by O'Connell began in 1982 when the victim was a freshman, and continued for several years.
Also last month, an unnamed 47-year-old Minnesota man sued O'Connell, claiming he was abused at St. Thomas starting in the late 1960s.
The RICO Act is aimed primarily at organized crime but includes provisions for civil cases when someone is harmed by a "pattern" of illegal activity.
"In this case, we have the Catholic Church and the seminary that have been infiltrated by predators who prey on children, and they cover it up," another attorney, Pat Noaker, said last month.
Racketeering lawsuits have been used in at least two other church abuse cases, neither successfully. A judge dismissed racketeering charges in a 1995 case in New Jersey; plaintiffs eventually abandoned a similar claim as part of a suit that led to a $30 million settlement against the Diocese of Dallas in 1998.
O'Connell has been in seclusion since his resignation.
