An unnamed woman from Virginia was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest who was performing an “exorcism” on her years ago… but she’s fighting back.

Jane Doe (as she is named in the law suit) is suing the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, its bishop Paul Loverde (who is not being accused of sexual assault), and pro-life group Human Life International (which employed the defendant).

The allegations say that Jane Doe went to Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, then the sitting president of HLI, believing she needed an exorcism — evidently her case was “severe.” Over a period of two years, she submitted to him as he cleansed her of “unclean spirits.”

The exorcisms involved a whole lot of really inappropriate touching:

He kissed the corners of her mouth; stroked her legs, breasts and thighs; caressed her face; laid his body on top of hers; and frequently explained full, passionate kisses as ‘blowing the Holy Spirit into her.’

Doe is also alleging that that Euteneuer digitally penetrated her on six different occasions.

When she realized the conduct was inappropriate, she complained to Loverde and the diocese, and Euteneuer resigned from his post at HLI and was recalled to the Diocese of Palm Beach. In other words, in 2010, when the church found out claims of this nature were leveled against one of their priests, instead of investigating it (or something appropriate like that), they just shuttled him to another state. Bravo, Catholics. You guys are nailing this “protect your molester priests” thing.

The diocese of Arlington says they haven’t officially been served with the complaint, but upon hearing of the allegations that Doe believes they were responsible for a member of their clergy who was within their geographical borders, guess how they reacted? Not “Oh no, one of our priests! We keep an eye on them and make sure they aren’t raping people and whatnot!”

Nope. They said “Well…even though he was physically in Virginia, he really was reporting back to the guys in Palm Springs, so it’s their problem!”

I’m sorry, am I wrong in thinking that a priest who has been allegedly been taking full sexual advantage of an extremely and admittedly vulnerable woman should be everyone’s problem? Clearly the Catholic church has given up on protecting their reputation as a whole and have resorted to playing Hot Potato with their molesters.

No, really, Catholic church. You guys are doing a great job. Keep doing what your doing, and hopefully Catholics will come to their senses and stop giving their money to these awful people.



