Another alleged victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest is taking advantage of a Hawaii law that opens a two-year window to file civil claims in cases where the statute of limitations has expired.
A 49-year-old Colorado man, who identifies himself as John Doe No. 87, is suing the Diocese of Bismark, N.D., for the sexual abuse he allegedly suffered in 1976 at the hands of the Rev. Maurice G. McNeely, retired administrator of Holy Family Catholic Academy on Oahu.
The man filed his lawsuit Tuesday in state court in Honolulu. It is nearly identical to one the man filed last year in U.S. District Court against the diocese and McNeely.
He says his father was stationed at Fort Shafter and that the family lived across the street from the Holy Family parish where McNeely served as a military chaplain and priest. The diocese in North Dakota was responsible for supervising McNeely.
The man says he was an altar boy when NcNeely sexually abused him, but that he repressed memories of the abuse until three years ago.
McNeely, who lives in Michigan, denies the claims made in the federal lawsuit and says he has witnesses who can testify that Holy Family Parish didn’t have altar boys when he was a priest.
The man is suing the diocese because he says it knew or should have known that McNeely was a pedophile when it assigned McNeely to Hawaii, but failed to warn others.
The diocese denies the man’s claim and said it will make available McNeely’s entire personnel file.
The state law allowing the filing of civil suits beyond the statute of limitations involves cases of alleged sexual offenses against minors.
In May, a Honolulu man filed a lawsuit in state court under the name John Roe 1 against Damien Memorial School and the Rev. Gerald Funcheon, a former chaplain and teacher at the school. The man claims Funcheon sexually abused him during an overnight retreat when he was a 13-year-old high school freshman in the 1980s.
In June, Mark Pinkosh sued the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii because he claims the Rev. Joseph Henry raped him when he was the priest at St. Anthony’s Church in Kailua in 1973. And a few years later, Pinkosh claims, when he told the new priest at the church, the Rev. Joseph Ferrario, about the rape, Ferrario raped him, too.
Ferrario went on to become Bishop of Honolulu. He and Henry have since died.
Pinkosh filed his lawsuit in state court under the name John Roe 2 but in August, made his identity public.
