A newly filed lawsuit against the Diocese of Harrisburg underscores the debate over the argument that victims compensation funds barred scores of people who had been sexually abused as children by employees of Catholic dioceses.

In his lawsuit, Patrick J. Duggan of Harrisburg claims that starting when he was 13, his history teacher at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School began to ply him with alcohol and drugs to then sexually molest and rape him.

Duggan, 58, claims that teacher Ronald Stewart, who lived next to the school playground and across the church, continued to abuse him until he was 17. Stewart died in 2010.

In addition to the diocese, the lawsuit names former bishop Kevin Rhoades and current Bishop Ronald Gainer.

Duggan was barred from making a claim with the victims compensation fund that the diocese established in the wake of the 2018 grand jury report that uncovered widespread and systemic sexual abuse of minors across seven decades across the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania. St. Francis of Assisi is within the Diocese of Harrisburg.

The diocese’s compensation fund - like the other programs established across the state - narrowly defined eligibility in the program to victims claiming they had been sexually abused as children by priests. Victims claiming that their predators were teachers, nuns or other employees were barred from making claims.

“I suggest that the compensation funds, as some politicians in Harrisburg claim, are not the answer,” said Richard Serbin, Duggan’s attorney, who has represented hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse. “They exclude people who are abuse survivors such as Patrick.”

All of the compensation funds have closed - meaning victims no longer can file claims for compensation. The Harrisburg Diocese in August announced it had paid out a $12 million settlement to 106 victims. On average, it amounts to $114,000 per settlement. The Altoona-Johnstown Diocese remains the only diocese in the state to not have established a fund.

Serbin, who joined Duggan in a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda, said his client required years of counseling to deal with the trauma as well as substance abuse.

“At the age of 13, if your teacher invites you over and gives you drugs, you think this teacher is cool because you are young, impressionable and naive,” Serbin said. “But Patrick paid a very dear price not only from drugs but from the horrific sexual abuse he suffered.”

Duggan said Stewart sexually abused other boys as well. He said the late teacher plied the boys with marijuana, quaaludes and hallucinogenic drugs

“I‘m here to tell victims of sexual abuse including those victimize by Ronald Stewart to step out of the darkness, to hold their head high and demand that our institutions protect the weakest among us,” Duggan said. “I ‘m here to say it’s not your fault. You are a victim. Please do what I have done and speak up.”

Officials at the Diocese of Harrisburg said that the teacher was reported to law enforcement in 1993 after the only known allegation against him was first reported to the diocese. The diocese again reported Stewart to law enforcement in late 2018 after Serbin wrote to the diocese regarding the 1993 allegation.

“Based on what limited records exist, it appears this teacher only taught at St. Francis of Assisi for some part of one school year in 1975; the Diocese is not aware of any contemporaneous allegations of abuse against this former teacher from the 1975 timeframe,” Rachel A. Bryson, diocesan spokeswoman said in a written statement.

She added that Gainer had met with survivors and that survivors have access to resources to pay for professional therapy and counseling through the diocese.

“As it concerns the clients of Mr. Serbin in particular, all have been invited to participate in this Diocesan-funded counseling,” Bryson said.

Serbin countered that the 1993 report against Stewart would have happened 19 years after Duggan’s abuse.

Last year, in the wake of the scathing grand jury report, Gainer identified 71 priests as being credibly accused of child sexual abuse. He also stripped the names of his predecessors from all buildings and classrooms, saying they had failed to protect children.

“If this is an effort on the part of the diocese to say they had policy that as soon as they were notified of child sex abuse allegation they contacted the police, I ‘d ask you to ask them of the 71 priests they identified,” Serbin said. “How many of them were prosecuted because the diocese promptly reported them to law enforcement?”

Duggan’s lawsuit comes amid deliberations in the Senate Judiciary Committee about the fate of proposed reform measures to overhaul the statute of limitations. At issue is a proposal to open a retroactive time window to allow victims time-barred from the legal process to sue predators in civil court.

Duggan had a message for legislators: “There’s no statute of limitations to those that have been abused. I stand here today looking down those steps to State Street as a Catholic. My grandfather served as caretaker for that cathedral for many years. When you are abused within your church, what it does to you words cannot convey. When you are abused within the church, the place you were sent to be protected..it changes you. You lose faith. It’s hard to walk into a church and look up at an icon that we used to find blessing.”

Duggan’s lawsuit closely mirrors that of another one of Serbin’s clients, and charges the diocese with conspiracy, fraud and constructive fraud.

In August, a Superior Court allowed Renee Rice, one of Serbin’s clients, to go through with her lawsuit against the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, claiming the diocese had failed to perform its fiduciary obligation towards her when it failed to protect her. The Rice decision is under appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Like Rice, Duggan’s statute of limitations have expired, but Serbin is arguing his clients did not have the advantage of full discovery since they were not aware of the full extent of the cover-up of abuse until after the 2018 grand jury report.

Duggan is a former PennLive employee.

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