Feb 28, 2006 4:36 pm US/Central
Lawsuit Wants Names Of Suspect Priests Released
CHICAGO (AP) ―
A class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Diocese of Joliet seeks to force Roman Catholic officials there to release the names of all priests accused of sexually abusing children.
The lead plaintiff is a man who says his family's priest at Divine Savior Church in Downer's Grove abused him in 1970. George Knotek said he was 16 when he approached the priest for advice on entering the seminary, but instead the Rev. Donald Pock gave him alcohol to drink and sexually abused him, creating "a nightmare that has lasted for years."
Pock died in 2004. Knotek said the response of church officials to his complaints -- which started in the early 1970s -- has been hurtful and insufficient, even though a brother who is a priest has tried to help him.
Tom Kerber, a spokesman for the Diocese of Joliet, said it would not have any immediate comment on the lawsuit. Joliet is about 30 miles southwest of Chicago.
Knotek is not seeking monetary damages. Instead, the lawsuit -- filed in DuPage County Circuit Court -- seeks the diocese's release of the names of all priests and other employees accused of molesting children since 1950.
It also wants the court to order the diocese not to destroy any documents regarding suspected sexual abuse and to turn the documents over to the court for safekeeping.
"It's bad enough that this culture of abuse has been allowed to continue. But the fact that the church still to this day doesn't come forward with the truth, doesn't look out for the victims. Shame on you. Shame on you. It's a shame," said Knotek, breaking down in tears.
The 52-year-old, who works for a nonprofit group in Minneapolis, appeared at a news conference organized by his attorney and the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The diocese's longtime bishop, Joseph Imesch, has been under fire recently, stemming from a 2005 deposition unsealed in early February.
In that deposition, Imesch said he transferred to another parish a priest who skinny-dipped and played poker in the nude with young boys because the behavior was inappropriate, but the bishop did not consider it to be sexual abuse.
The deposition was related to a lawsuit filed against the diocese by a man who alleges a priest abused him in the 1960s. Another priest in the diocese has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into accusations that he sexually abused a boy more than 20 years ago.
Imesch wrote a letter read in parishes last month saying that he cares about the safety of children despite questions about how he has handled reports of alleged sexual misconduct.
Knotek's lawsuit -- citing media reports and previous litigation -- lists the names of 28 priests it says have been accused of sexual misconduct in the Joliet Diocese.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed in Chicago in late January asking the country's third-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese to reveal the names of all its priests suspected of abuse over the past 54 years. It was filed after a priest from a Chicago church was charged with molesting boys.
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