Posted on 01/20/2022 6:10:13 PM PST by marshmallow
A New York judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former seminarian against the Pontifical North American College major seminary and its administrators, stating that the New York court does not have jurisdiction over the Rome-based seminary and its employees.
In a civil lawsuit filed in February 2021, plaintiff Anthony J. Gorgia, a former student at the NAC, had sought $125 million in damages in civil court against the seminary, as well as rector Father Peter Harman, former vice rector Father Adam Park, and NAC lecturer Father John G. McDonald, along with New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and the Archdiocese of New York.
Gorgia claimed in the lawsuit that he had been blocked from continuing his studies for the priesthood after he witnessed Park, then the vice rector, give an inappropriate back rub to a subordinate seminarian.
According to court documents, Judge Lizette Colon of the New York State Supreme Court in Richmond County (Staten Island), New York, granted the defendants’ motions to have the complaints dismissed on Jan. 13, following a virtual hearing held on Jan. 5.
Gorgia had originally filed suit on 12 causes of action, including defamation, wrongful discharge, sexual harassment, emotional distress, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with prospective economic advantage, and Title VII discrimination.
He later filed a cross-motion to withdraw the Title VII discrimination, sexual harassment, and defamation causes, and the request was granted by the judge. A request to add additional complaints to the suit for breach of implied contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing were denied.
Gorgia's request for the court to permit the late service of the complaint was also denied.
Lawyers for Gorgia and the plaintiffs were not immediately available for comment on Jan. 18 prior to publication.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Based on accounts I’d heard about the NAC when Dolan was rector, I don’t find the complaint far-fetched.
NAC Vice-Rector Steps-Down Amidst Allegations of Homosexual Misconduct
August 1, 2021 from Complicit Clergy by Gene Gomulka
An announcement by the Pontifical North American College (NAC) seminary in Rome confirms that the vice-rector, Father Adam Park, will suddenly “not be returning” to his post at the NAC amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct toward seminarians under his authority. The Washington D.C. priest is a defendant along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the NAC rector, Father Peter Harman, in a massive lawsuit brought forward by former seminarian Anthony Gorgia which alleges serial sexual predation and misconduct, as well as cover-up, on the part of seminary and Church officials.
Harman is himself accused of graphic sexual acts at an orgy with Archbishop George Lucas in the presence of vulnerable seminarians. Harman is also alleged to have repeatedly retaliated against seminarians who objected to Park’s acts of nonconsensual misconduct, and to have used his position as rector to reprise against those perceived as a threat to outing both him and Park. The lawsuit likewise implicates Cardinal Dolan for having covered up sexual predation and misconduct on the part of NAC officials.
In a June 2021 affidavit, a former FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) affirmed that he found evidence and numerous witnesses “entirely credible” in support of the allegations against Park, Harman, Dolan, and the other defendants.
The news of Park’s abrupt departure comes after bombshell affidavits from the former FBI SAC and a subject of Park’s sexual misconduct that revealed how Harman, Dolan, members of the NAC Board of Governors, and Vatican officials had received and refused over the course of two years to investigate numerous reports of Park’s predatory behavior.
Park was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who faces criminal charges for sexual abuse, and later served as priest-secretary to disgraced Cardinal Donald Wuerl. Park secured prominent positions in the Church under Wuerl’s leadership.
Park relinquished his post after Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, another highly-placed U.S. cleric who served at the NAC, resigned as General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) amid reports of alleged serial homosexual misconduct. . .
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