NEWS & EVENTS

A man who became the caretaker for the Rev. Raymond Kownacki -- whose sexual abuse of a minor cost the Catholic Diocese of Belleville more than $6 million -- has filed suit against the 76-year-old priest. In a lawsuit filed Monday in St. Clair County Court, the plaintiff is identified only as "John Doe, S.W." The complaint states that the plaintiff was a 16-year-old boy at St. Mary's Parish in Valmeyer when he was sexually abused by Kownacki from 1985-87. Kownacki was the parish priest. According to a complaint, "Defendant Kownacki engaged in unwanted and harmful sexual conduct...

St. Paul, Minnesota-based child abuse attorney Jeff Anderson filed a new lawsuit today against the Diocese of Belleville and Father Raymond Kownacki on behalf of a St. Louis area man who was sexually abused by Kownacki as a child. Kownacki, who worked for decades within the Diocese of Belleville, is a well-known sexually abusive priest with numerous child...

Civil Complaint against the Diocese of Belleville and Fr. Raymond Kownacki filed in St. Clair County, Illinois on October 3, 2011 by St. Paul, Minnesota Attorney Jeff Anderson.

Another lawsuit has been filed alleging that Bishop Robert Finn and other Catholic Church leaders strove to cover up Father Shawn Ratigan taking sexually explicit pictures of young girls. An unidentified girl and her parents are suing The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop Robert Finn and Ratigan. Some of the allegations are similar to a previous lawsuit by another girl's family but also includes explosive new allegations about the lengths that Diocese leaders and Finn went to keep the issue from going public. These allegations include claiming that...