Greg Owen says two Catholic priests molested him when he was an altar boy at St. Anthony’s Church in Kailua.
He said he was 8 or 9 years old.
"It was almost an unreal experience. And even if I fully understood what was happening, my father was a Marine and there was no way I could’ve talked to him about it," he said.
Owen, 62, a farmer on Hawaii island, and five others are the latest people to take advantage of a state law that temporarily suspends a statute of limitations to allow them to sue the Catholic Church and church entities in Hawaii for the sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of clergy in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Their lawsuit, filed in state court Thursday, names as defendants the Diocese of Hawaii, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, the Congregation of Christian Brothers of Hawaii and the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Only the initials of the plaintiffs appear on the lawsuit. Owen acknowledged he is one of them.
Owen identified the two priests who molested him as the Revs. Edward Meuth and Joseph Henry. A teacher at Saint Louis School in Kaimuki, David Brock, also molested him when he was older, Owen said.
According to the lawsuit, the other plaintiffs were sexually abused by Brother Thomas Duffin and Father Bruce J. Cullerton when they attended Damien Memorial High School in Kalihi and by Brother Dominic Stone at St. Patrick’s Church in Kaimuki.
The lawsuit doesn’t name any of the alleged perpetrators as defendants.
Randall Rosenberg, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said that’s because most of them, including Meuth and Henry, are dead, and successfully suing their estates can be difficult if not impossible. He also said the state law that opened a two-year window for sexual abuse lawsuits involving children allows victims to sue the agencies that supervised the perpetrators.
Rosenberg said the Catholic Church and church entities on the mainland transferred sexual abusers to Hawaii and other places to avoid further problems and complaints.
"They sent them to remote locations like Hawaii where, predictably but unfortunately, they continued to commit acts of sexual abuse on Hawaii’s children," he said.
A spokesman for the diocese said it has not seen the lawsuit and does not wish to comment on it.
Owen blames the sexual abuse he suffered as a child for his alcoholism and difficulty with relationships later in life. He said he didn’t talk about what happened to him with anyone until he told friends about it when he became an adult.
About five or six years ago, after he had given up Christianity, Owen said, he sought help from the diocese, which provided him valuable counseling.
