Another lawsuit alleges abuse by Philly priest

By John Loftus

Times Staff Writer

A former Northeast Philadelphia altar boy on Monday became the fourth man in a month to sue Philadelphia's Roman Catholic archdiocese, claiming he had been sexually abused as a child.

At a Center City news conference on Monday, his lawyers said they expect to file many more similar actions.

In his suit, the plaintiff - identified only as John Doe 168 - said he was molested by Monsignor John E. Gillespie while an altar boy at Our Lady of Calvary Roman Catholic Church, on Knights Road in Millbrook, from 1988 through 1991.

The accuser is now 32 and lives in Phoenix, Ariz.

Gillespie, who died in 2008, was named as a defendant in another suit filed March 7 by a 31-year-old Delaware man who was a teenage parish sacristan at Calvary when he said he was molested by Gillespie. Earlier this month, the plaintiff who brought that lawsuit, Phil Gaughan, said he had been silent about the sexual abuse for years until October, when he contacted the archdiocese for help from its victim-assistance program. He said he got none.

John Doe 168 was not at Monday's news conference at the Marriott Hotel on Market Street. Gaughan was recruited to attend the session and read John Doe's statement on his behalf, in which he alleged that Gillespie molested him for about three years.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, John Doe - who would not disclose his true name at this point - said Gillespie began to sexually abuse him when he was a 10-year-old altar boy. The first time occurred when he was alone with the priest after a Mass.

"I had no clue what was happening," he said. "I was still playing with toys."

He soon became aware that what was occurring wasn't right. "I just hated being an altar boy," he said. "Every time I had to go to church, I got sick to my stomach. I begged my parents to let me quit."

He stopped being an altar boy - in fact, he said, he stopped much more, too. "I didn't want any part of school or church or religion anymore," John Doe said.

His teenage years were troubled, a reason that he never mentioned the abuse, he said. He also was reticent to say anything because of his sense that Gillespie was held in high regard within the Calvary parish.

"I felt people would think I was lying," John Doe said.

Attorney Jeff Anderson, part of a legal team that has filed four lawsuits against archdiocesan officials, said his latest client contacted the lawyers after reading an online account of Gaughan's case. It can take years for molestation survivors to come to terms with their victimization, the attorney said, explaining that the Arizona man was moved by Gaughan's courage in coming forward.

On Tuesday, John Doe said that Gaughan's account stirred memories of what he too endured during his experiences with Gillespie. "You could've taken Phil's name out and put mine in," he said.

His own encounters, John Doe said, occurred before the mid-1990s time frame of abuse that has been detailed by Gaughan.

"If I would have said something . . . what happened to Phil wouldn't have happened," John Doe said.

He felt compelled to come forward.

"It is such a disgusting thing that happened," he said. "I didn't want to be eighty and not have done anything."

Besides the cases of Gaughan and John Doe 168, the attorneys have filed suits for two suburban residents who named other Roman Catholic clergymen as sexual abusers.

Common to all four cases are the claims that Philadelphia church leaders and other officials are responsible for a failure to shield children from sexually predatory priests, and that the archdiocesan victim-assistance program is a sham designed to protect church interests, not to aid molestation victims.

Named in the suit were Cardinal Justin Rigali, the city's current archbishop; Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, his predecessor; Monsignor William Lynn, who was Bevilacqua's secretary for clergy; Karen Becker, director of the Archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection; and Maggie Marshall, the archdiocese's victim-assistance coordinator.

The suit alleges that the defendants conspired to endanger children by taking no action against priests accused of molesting minors. It also contends that archdiocesan victim-assistance coordinators took information from victims - saying it would be confidential - and shared it with the archdiocese and its attorneys. The suit accuses the defendants of fraudulent concealment and fraud.

Spokeswoman Donna Farrell said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would not comment on the lawsuit.

A grand jury report released last month - the result of an investigation by the city district attorney's office - led to the arrests of Lynn, three other priests and a layman who taught at St. Jerome's School in Winchester Park. An earlier grand-jury probe, detailed in 2005, contended that the Philadelphia archdiocese had allowed child molesters to serve in its churches for decades, transferred them from parish to parish when complaints of abuse surfaced, and generally shielded them from prosecution.

Anderson and two colleagues, attorneys Marci Hamilton and Dan Monahan, levied the same allegation as the grand jury that Lynn was fully aware of the sexual abuse by priests.

In their report, the grand jurors said that, in 1994, Monsignor Gillespie informed Lynn of accusations that two brothers had made against Gillespie, who also showed Lynn letters he had written to his victims "apologizing, explaining and trying to persuade them that events had not happened precisely as the victims remembered," according to the report.

Nothing happened to Gillespie, the grand jurors wrote, and he continued to serve at Our Lady of Calvary until he resigned in 2000.

"He admitted he had issues, that he did stuff to people," John Doe said of Gillespie. "He was never punished . . . he never had to pay a human price. I'll probably have issues the rest of my life."

He sees constant reminders, he said.

"Every time I pass a church, it's in my head."

Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com