admin @ Wed, 2005-10-12 11:00
As Monsignor Francis Murphy, he tried at least twice to rape the boy and took nude photographs of him, said Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa. He filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Anchorage Superior Court on behalf of the plaintiff, now in his 30s, who is called Joseph Doe in the suit.
Murphy was a popular and charismatic priest in the Archdiocese of Anchorage from the 1960s to 1985. That's when his superiors suddenly ordered him to an alcoholic rehabilitation center for priests in the Lower 48 as police were investigating him for sexual misconduct, the Daily News reported in 2003.
The newspaper revealed Murphy as an alcoholic who collected pornography and was sexually attracted to boys. He permanently moved to Boston later in 1985 when police said they'd arrest him at the airport if he returned, the newspaper reported.
The new lawsuit seeks damages against Murphy, the Archdiocese of Anchorage, the Archdiocese of Boston and the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle, the group that the lawsuit says brokered the arrangement that sent him from Boston to Anchorage.
Some of the events occurred after Pat Podvin went to then-Archbishop Francis Hurley in 1982 with a complaint that Murphy had made sexual advances toward him. That's the first known complaint to the archdiocese about Murphy's sexual behavior. Podvin went on to become principal of Service High School. He publicly talked in 2003 about being a victim of sexual abuse. A year later, Podvin committed suicide.
The new suit asserts that the defendants concealed what they knew of Murphy's propensity for sex with minors, shuffled him from position to position and allowed him to have minors under his guidance in parish buildings, including in bedrooms.
The archdioceses failed to act because they wanted "to avoid detection, avoid public disclosure, avoid scandal, avoid disclosure of the atmosphere of tolerance of child molestation, avoid any appearance of impropriety, and avoid any investigation into said conduct by civil authorities," the lawsuit says.
Efforts to reach Murphy in Cuba, N.M., where he settled in 1995, were unsuccessful. The outgoing message on his answering machine talks about October being the month of change and urges callers to pray for peace.
The archdiocese would not comment on the suit. It issued a prepared statement that said: "We deeply regret any abuse that any person has suffered from a Catholic priest. We continue to encourage people who have been abused to come forward, and we hope we can assist them in their healing."
The man identified as Joseph Doe approached Archbishop Roger Schwietz about a year ago seeking help with counseling bills but never got anywhere, Roosa said.
"He never wanted to sue the archdiocese. He wanted the archbishop to treat him with respect, to treat him in a compassionate way as a parishioner who was hurt," Roosa said. Instead "he feels hurt and ignored."
This is the second lawsuit against Murphy. In 1996, Ken Gage sued, accusing Murphy of fondling him years before when he was living at St. Patrick's Church in Muldoon. Attorneys for the church and Murphy successfully argued that too much time had passed, and the suit was dismissed.
Murphy took in troubled teenage boys to live with him in the rectory when he was priest of St. Patrick's, the Daily News found. When he was transferred in 1984 to St. Benedict Catholic Church in South Anchorage, he obtained a donated house on Northern Lights Boulevard, and teens moved into that place, known as Sanctuary House. "Joseph Doe" was among those teenagers.
In the newspaper series, five men spoke of being sexually abused or harassed by Murphy. One was Gage, who said Murphy had retreated to his room with another teen -- identified in the suit as "Joseph Doe"-- and shut the door. When a police investigator interviewed that boy about Murphy, he denied having had sex with the priest.
This case is different, Roosa said, in part because of a 2001 change in Alaska law. It now says that a person can bring suit at any time for conduct that would be considered felony sexual abuse of a minor. The church shouldn't be allowed to cover up abuse, then later claim too much time has passed for the matter to be dealt with in court, he said.
"These lawsuits are the only way that we have found that survivors can get any justice," said Joelle Casteix, southwest regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. The group provides emotional support to those who have been abused by church figures of any denomination.
Casteix said she was abused as a girl by the choir director at her Catholic high school in California. Her case was part of a $100 million settlement this year against the Diocese of Orange County, she said. All she really wanted was the records of what had happened and whether other girls had been victimized by the choir director. The records she got through the suit showed that some were, she said.
She is in Anchorage to meet with people abused by priests and to deliver letters to the archdiocese and to a gathering of priests urging the Catholic church to become more open and responsive to survivors of priest abuse.
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