New lawsuits accuse Catholic priests and nuns of abuse

St. Louis (AP) – Sixty people claim in new lawsuits in Missouri that they were abused as children by dozens of Catholic priests, nuns and others. Among the defendants is the man who now leads the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska.

This week, five separate lawsuits were filed in St. Louis and surrounding counties seeking unspecified damages. In total, 56 alleged abusers are named in the lawsuits. The lawsuits seek unspecified damages.

Among those named is Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in St. Louis District Court says the unnamed accuser was 16 when he met Lucas in the late 1980s at the now-closed St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, where Lucas was a priest and dean of education. The lawsuit accuses Lucas of sexually abusing the boy on multiple occasions and offering him better grades in exchange for sexual favors.

Lucas defended himself strongly in a statement on Thursday.

“I strongly deny the accusation made by an anonymous person,” Lucas said. “I have never had sexual contact with another person. I have brought the matter to the attention of the apostolic nuncio, Pope Francis’ representative in Washington, DC.”

The lawsuits allege abuse dating back to the 1940s, but also as recently as 2015. David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said at least 10 of the alleged perpetrators are still alive and he expressed fears they could commit abuse again. Some of those named have already been convicted of crimes or named in previous civil cases.

In one case, both a priest and a nun are alleged to have sexually abused a girl with intellectual disabilities from 1999 to 2002, when she was 8-12 years old. The lawsuit says the priest threatened to kill the girl if she resisted. When she attended another school from 2002 to 2004, she was abused by a different priest, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuits also name the Archdiocese of St. Louis and its current Archbishop, Mitchell T. Rozanski, alleging that St. Louis church leaders “knew about the sexual abuse of their young parishioners and children in the parish” but failed to stop it.

“This shameless cover-up spanned decades and allowed various clergy and other staff to gain access to and sexually abuse numerous children,” the lawsuits state.

Messages were left with the Archdiocese of St. Louis.