Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Scandal. There were new allegations Tuesday of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church in San Diego, and for the first time locally, a nun was named as an abuser. NBC7/39 reported that the San Diego diocese might face as many as 80 more sexual-abuse lawsuits by the end of the year. The […]
Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Scandal. There were new allegations Tuesday of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church in San Diego, and for the first time locally, a nun was named as an abuser.
NBC7/39 reported that the San Diego diocese might face as many as 80 more sexual-abuse lawsuits by the end of the year.
The boy referred to in the civil complaint as John Roe was 10 years old in 1969. He was a resident student at a boarding-house school next to the San Diego mission that was run by a Roman Catholic order of nuns at the time.
“ not only by nuns, but by priests who would visit and minister there and by lay people who were invited to come to this facility to take care of kids, take them to a ballgame when, in fact, they were sexually abusing these children,” said Zalkin.
Another civil complaint, which was filed on behalf of Diana B., alleges that as a young teenager, she was sexually and physically abused from 1971 to 1972 by a nun named Sister Bridgette.
The complaint also accuses Monsigner Brent Eagan of raping the girl in the summer of 1972.
Both Eagan and the nun are now deceased.
A representative for the diocese did not comment about the allegations, saying it hadn’t been served with the lawsuits.
The Catholic diocese is also named as a defendent in a lawsuit filed last week by the same attorneys who filed papers Tuesday. In last week’s legal filing, it was alleged that retired Monsigner Rudolpho Galindo molested an altar boy who was serving at Our Lady of Guadelupe church in Chula Vista
Galindo is now living in a priest’s retirement facility in San Antonio and maintains the title of monsignor.
“What would I like the church to do with him?” asked Zalkin. “At minimum, he should be defrocked,”
The diocese has settled at least one previous claim involving Galindo.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said that at least 80 more suits are being prepared locally to be filed against the church by the end of the year when a special state law expires that extended the legal deadline for filing sexual-abuse claims.
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