As a result of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia's failure to acknowledge the sexual assault allegations made by a woman against the former college chaplain, they are now in the middle of a new lawsuit. The incident reportedly happened when the archdiocese relocated the abusive priest from Philadelphia to Nashville in 2013.
Lawsuit
According to CBC News, new charges were made against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Wednesday, Apr. 20, claiming that church administrators secretly moved a priest accused of sexually assaulting women from one job to another inside the parish between the years 2003 and 2020.
In a five-count lawsuit filed in the Court of Common Pleas, the church and the priest are accused of negligence and recklessness for allegedly failing to adequately oversee the priests, evaluate accusations against them, as well as safeguard the congregation from them, commonly by simply transferring the priests to other dioceses.
After the archdiocese, which was led at the time by Archbishop Charles Chaput, transferred Father Kevin McGoldrick, then 48 years old, to her college in Nashville, Tennessee, Jane Doe, the person whose identity they are protecting, asserts in her lawsuit that Father McGoldrick sexually molested her after the archdiocese relocated him there.
Jane Doe said that her entire senior year had been taken from her. She was reportedly paralyzed by anxiety during the entire year and lived in continual terror of someone discovering the truth, especially if they would blame her.
According to the complaint, Jane Doe has already resolved an issue with the Diocese of Nashville; nevertheless, she claims that late last year, she was horrified to learn that Father McGoldrick had been suspected of abusing a woman in Philadelphia years before he allegedly raped her.
Attorney Stewart Ryan of the law firm Laffey, Bucci, and Kent represents Jane Doe in legal matters.
Moreover, The Inquirer reported that Her allegations were validated by the findings of a church investigation in Philadelphia in January 2020. And after a few short months, the Diocese of Nashville settled with her for $65,000.
However, officials there continued to say that they were unaware of any previous complaints against McGoldrick before he was transferred to Aquinas in 2013. A spokeswoman for the monitoring organization, Catholics4Change, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, stated that McGoldrick's superiors in Philadelphia had written an email describing him as a priest in good standing. It is the usual procedure when clergy members migrate between dioceses.
Sexual Abuse of the Priests Covered By the Church
As per Abuse Lawsuit.com, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) received 4,228 claims of sexual misconduct involving children in 2021. Between July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, 3,924 victims of abuse have come forward with these allegations. Over 2,700 members of the clergy from different parts of the country were involved in the occurrences.
According to the report, only 22 complaints entail ongoing investigations or legal proceedings. Yet, victims with older cases are still looking for legal rights and transparency from the accountable dioceses.
In addition, a large number of high-ranking Church officials have been complicit in a variety of cover-ups. Many dioceses and church leaders covered up the abuse and sheltered the perpetrators rather than taking action to protect the children in their care.
Instead of reporting the abuse to law enforcement agencies, many diocese leaders relocated abusive priests to different churches to cover their actions. Shifting abusive priests among congregations is often known as "priest shuffling." The officials of the church reshuffled priests and shielded pedophiles over the victims who were innocent children.
Some of the victims of these cover-ups have taken legal action against the dioceses and bishops who abused their authority to safeguard the priests they protected.
Related Article: Diocese of San Diego Rejects Lawsuit's Allegations of Hiding Assets from Sexual Abuse Victims
