A second Humboldt County man is suing the Santa Rosa Catholic Diocese, alleging he was repeatedly molested in the 1980s by an Irish priest who had been identified as a pedophile.
The suit, filed Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court, accuses the diocese of negligence and fraud for hiring the Rev. Patrick Joseph McCabe and failing to disclose his misconduct to parishioners in Eureka.
A 36-year-old Eureka man filed a similar lawsuit last week, alleging he was repeatedly fondled at age 9 by McCabe while at St. Bernard School in 1984.
The alleged victim in the newly filed case is a 38-year-old Humboldt County man who served as an altar boy at St. Bernard, where McCabe was assigned by former Santa Rosa Bishop Mark Hurley, now deceased.
Both men were identified as "John Doe" in the lawsuits and are represented by Joseph George, a Sacramento attorney who has filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Catholic Church.
McCabe, 74, remains in custody in an Alameda County Jail pending extradition to Ireland to face charges of molesting six boys from 1973 to 1981. He was removed from the priesthood in 1988.
A lengthy report on misconduct by Irish priests says that former Dublin Archbishop Dermot Ryan asked Hurley in 1983 to "rid me of this troublesome priest" and that Hurley agreed. Hurley died in 2001.
The report, commissioned by the Irish government and released last year, says that Hurley was informed of McCabe's treatment for pedophilia at a Catholic facility in New Mexico, including the use of a drug to suppress his sexual impulses.
His next assignment was in St. Bernard Parish and the fallout from the report has triggered this latest round of lawsuits.
Thursday's filing details the latest allegations:
The second alleged victim's mother worked at church bingo games to defray the cost of her 11-year-old son's school tuition in 1983, George said. McCabe volunteered to baby-sit the boy, who was molested in the church rectory "for approximately nine to 12 months on a weekly basis," the lawsuit states.
George's filing of sex abuse complaints includes nine against the Santa Rosa Diocese since 2003, in addition to the two new lawsuits filed this month. George said Thursday he is working with other alleged victims of McCabe and he promised additional filings.
Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh was out of town and unavailable for comment, his secretary said Thursday.
Walsh, who took over the scandal-plagued North Coast diocese in 2000, said on Monday there is nothing in the diocese file on McCabe that would have alerted church officials in the 1980s to any alleged misconduct by McCabe in Ireland or his treatment for pedophilia.
Dan Galvin, the diocese attorney, said Thursday he had not seen either lawsuit and could not indicate whether the church would settle out of court or go to trial.
The North Coast diocese, which serves 167,000 Catholics from Sonoma County to the Oregon border, has paid about $25 million to settle lawsuits by victims of abuse. None of the lawsuits has gone to trial, Galvin said.
Hope McNeil, a Eureka parishioner since 1979, said there have been mixed reactions to the McCabe case, ranging from "renewed outrage" to skepticism that the men filing lawsuits are motivated by money.
McNeil said she suspects that if there are two abuse victims in Eureka "there are probably more. Pedophilia is like that."
St. Bernard is a close-knit parish, she said, where most people know those who attend the same Mass as they do.
She also said there is a sense in Humboldt County, which she described as "behind the redwood curtain," that Santa Rosa-based church officials "may just send the weird ones up here. It seems like we've had more than our fair share," she said of troubled priests.
Three accused child abusers — Gary Timmons, a convicted sex offender, Don Kimball and John Rogers, both deceased — also served in the parish.
They are among the 17 diocese priests accused of sexual misconduct. Eight have been named by victims in various disclosures; the other nine have not been identified by Bishop Walsh, who has said they are either dead or no longer serving in the diocese.
The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that the diocese should not have hired or retained McCabe due to his "dangerous and exploitive propensities."
John Gallagher, a retired Sonoma County judge, said he could not fathom why Hurley would have hired a troubled priest.
"Why would you take a bite from a rotten apple?" he asked. "I think it was negligence."
Complaints by Gallagher's son, Stephen, that he was abused by Timmons at a Catholic youth camp helped break open the sex abuse scandal in the Santa Rosa Diocese in 1994.
Adrienne Moran, another diocese attorney, said last week there was no evidence that Hurley or other diocese officials knew of McCabe's past.
Two priests who served along with McCabe at St. Bernard Church said they were not aware of any issues in his past, nor any complaints about him in Eureka.
McCabe was abruptly removed from the parish in 1985 after parents complained that he had children sit on his knee during confession, according to court papers. He then served briefly at St. Elizabeth Parish in Guerneville before returning to Ireland.
David Clohessy, an abuse victims advocate, said Thursday that Walsh should visit parishes where McCabe worked and urge victims to go to police, rather than the church.
"There are pending criminal charges here, so even a little bit of real action by Walsh could really help law enforcement," said Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Galvin said he did not think the bishop, who sent a letter last week to St. Bernard parishioners, needs to go to Eureka.
"We have made it clear we will assist any victims who come forward," Galvin said.
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