Victims beg KC bishop @ news conference 8/1
Victims beg bishop: ‘Warn your flock!’
Three Catholic clerics have just been sued
One, a deacon, allegedly molested a child
The other 2 clerics are sued for fraud in counseling a couple
SNAP: “Johnston must investigate quickly & announce results”
One of the suits targets a controversial ‘breakaway’ church group
On sidewalk, victims will write names of priests who may still be ‘threats’
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, child abuse victims will use chalk to write on the sidewalk the names of roughly a dozen “proven, admitted or credibly accused” KC MO abusive clerics who are still alive and “may still be a dangerous around kids.”
The will also disclose
--that a Catholic deacon who’s being sued for alleged child sex crimes is likely working now in a Kansas City MO parish, and
--that two Catholic priests and their controversial KC MO-based religious order are being sued NOT FOR SEXUAL ABUSE but for ‘ fraud’ and ‘privacy invasion’ in counseling sessions that allegedly devastated a parishioner’s family. (It also charges his supervisors with fraud, privacy invasion and intentional infliction of emotional distress.)
The group will hand deliver a letter urging the KC MO bishop to
--immediately investigate the deacon,
--announce the results publicly and promptly, and if need be,
--suspend him and warn parishioners and the public about him, and
--"aggressively reach out” to anyone who may have “seen, suspected or suffered any wrongdoing” by the man and “urge them to call police, prosecutor or police or a support group so they can protect others and start healing.”
WHEN
Thursday, Aug. 1 at 1:15 p.m.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the KC Catholic headquarters (“chancery office”), 20 West 9th Street (at Baltimore) in downtown Kansas City MO
WHO
Three victims & one supporters, including a St. Louis man who for 30 years headed a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests & is now its Missouri director
WHY
--1) Based on legal documents and church websites, SNAP believes it is very likely that a Catholic deacon who has just been sued for sexually abusing a child is the same man who now work in a Kansas City MO parish. SNAP is asking Kansas City MO Bishop James Johnston to immediately investigate and if warranted, publicly suspend the deacon.
In a lawsuit filed last week in St. Louis, Ralph Wehner was accused of child sexual abuse. (The suit refers to Wehner as a Catholic ‘brother’ but that was likely an error. In church publications and on a church website, he is called a deacon.)
There is a Ralph Wehner now on the staff of Our Lady of Good Counsel parish in Westport (3934 Washington St, 816 561 0400). https://goodcounselkc.org/parish/staff/
Wehner also works in the KC MO church headquarters (a.k.a. chancery office) in the archives.
“Currently, Deacon Ralph serves as special assistant to the Bishop (Johnston) and directs the offices of Reclamation and Diocesan Special Events,” according to church websites. https://goodcounselkc.org/parish/staff/
https://kcsjcatholic.org/office/archives/
“On at least three occasions between 1982 and 1984,” the suit says, Wehner sexually abused the boy “when he was 13 to 15 years old” at St. Alban Roe parish in Glencoe in western St. Louis County.
Deacon Wehner was reportedly brought to KC from St. Louis in 2009 by then-Bishop Robert Finn, who worked in St. Louis before being promoted to head the KC MO diocese.
https://catholickey.org/2012/08/16/deacon-and-his-wife-surrendered-lives-entirely-to-gods-will/
--2) The other lawsuit was also filed last week, but in Kansas City. It’s against an unusual, controversial Catholic religious order called the SSPX
In 2020, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, as part of its investigation into the four Kansas Catholic dioceses, also investigated accusations that SSPX members were either perpetrating or covering up clerical sex abuse.
The suit charges that Fr. Pierre Duverger began counseling a local couple but then “began seeing his wife alone.” The priest admitted that he’d dictated a letter to the wife which she then gave her husband “falsely accusing (him) of abuse and other misdeeds.”
When the husband eventually moved out, Fr. Duverger “began a long-term relationship” with her, the suit says, while she “continued seeing him in counseling (often) at all hours of the day and night” leaving their six children “often at home alone for long periods” while she was at the priests’ house.
Earlier in his career, Fr. Duverger had been restricted from contact with women by his supervisors because of ‘allegations made by an adult woman” and had “his ability to counsel women limited,” according to the filing.
Another defendant in the case is Fr. Arnaud Rostand, who also belongs to the SSPX and who confessed to molesting several children. In this case, Fr. Rostand was Fr. Duverger's supervisor. He jointly undertook counseling with Fr. Duverger and allowed Duverger to engage in counseling with this family and a relationship with the wife despite “knowing or being in a position to know” of Duverger's limitations.
The order, Fr. Duverger and Fr. Rostand “have a history of engaging in these behaviors with others,” the suit says.
The plaintiff lives in Missouri. Fr. Rostand is in prison in France. Fr. Duverger is in Florida.
The alleged SSPX victim is represented by attorney Rebecca M. Randles of Kansas City (816 931 9901, rebecca@randlesmatalaw.com).
The SSPX national headquarters is at 11485 N. Farley Rd in Platte City (816 753 0073, https://sspx.org/en/contact-regina-coeli-house-43449). It claims roughly 600 priests across the world and is headed by Fr. Davide Pagliarani.
CONTACT
David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com
Tom White 913 927 3859, twhite11409@gmail.com