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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

US church to face civil case over ‘pedophile’ priest

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Tacloban City—An American lawyer will be filing civil case against a Catholic Church in the United States over the alleged sexual abuses committed by 78-year-old US “pedophile” priest Kenneth Hendricks who was arrested in Naval, Biliran on Dec. 5, 2018.

McDonald Worley, a civil case lawyer in Texas, said they were gathering more witnesses and evidence for their charges against the priest who had been in the country for over 40 years. 

 “This is sad and embarrassing. These victims will live on this with the rest of their lives,” said Worley, who visited the barangay in Naval where Hendricks was assigned. 

The lawyer added their case was separate from the criminal case filed by the Philippine government against the priest.

“I am on a civil case, not on criminal.  So when someone gets hurt, I work on the compensation,” Worley said as he called on other victims to report the alleged sexual molestations.

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While he said he was “positive” of having an airtight case against Hendricks, he also urged the concerned church to step forward and have a fund ready should they decide to pay.

He said the Church could be held liable for the actions of Henricks.

“That’s part of the investigation. There is a system failure. They need to have policies and procedures in place so this will not happen. They know something is going on and they do nothing about it. They did not stop it,” said the lawyer. 

According to him, anyone within the organization had the power to stop the alleged sexual abuses.

The lawyer said clients were 7 to 25 years old and that most of the sexual abuses happened to them when they were 16.

Reports said the priest might have molested over 50 teenagers during his stay in Naval.

“I think we have a lot of witnesses. We’ve talked to the parents as well. Basically, we’ll be getting more testimonies, evidence,” Worley said.

He said he could not still determine the amount to be paid for his clients because it was up to the US jury to decide on it in case both parties could not agree on the compensation.

Worley said he was also handling similar cases in the US involving priests.

“There will always be people who don’t believe something bad will be done by a religious person, or by persons in authority. You don’t think bad about them because it didn’t happen to you. But if 50 people said, ‘It happened to me,’ that’s another story,” he said.

The lawyer said he understood  why other victims had not come forward because of fear and public shame. 

“He would then lure them to his apartment where he would gradually progress from spending time with the boys to fondling them,” the lawyer narrated what the young victims have experienced with the priest.

“I know, It’s very embarrassing to come forward and say, ‘This happened to me.’ That’s why you should be brave to come forward and say, ‘This happened to me, too’” the lawyer said.

“I would like them to come forward so this [sexual abuse] will stop. It’s hard and embarrassing, but if you keep quiet, this keeps going on because no one is saying it,” he added.

Hendricks, who is jailed in Manila, is facing illegal sexual charges in a foreign country in his home state in Cincinnati, Ohio 

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati disowned Henricks, saying the priest “is not, nor has ever been, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.”

“To the best of our knowledge, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Philippines to serve in the diocese of Naval. He has never had any assignment with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,” the archdiocese said in a statement, read in the Philippines.

“Although not a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Fr. Hendricks is listed on our website as a Catholic missionary serving in Asia. He is one of around 75 missionaries from Southwest Ohio who receive some financial support from the Mission Office of the Archdiocese. None of these individuals work for, or take direction from, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,” it added.

The archdiocese however said that “the abuse of children or any vulnerable person is abhorrent and needs to be prosecuted.”

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