A Tennessee appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by two brothers against the Diocese of Nashville. The 21- and 20-year-old brothers had sued the diocese after they were abused by a guy who had been dismissed from the priesthood two years earlier. The court said that they met the guy, Edward McKeown, at their mobile-home park, not at any church-related functions and that there had been a long time elapsed between McKeown’s connection the diocese and the alleged abuse.
The boy’s lawyer had claimed that if the diocese had notified police in the mid-1980s, when McKeown first admitted abusing boys, then his clients would not have been abused. But the diocese says that the law did not require them to report the priest to police.
I think the law is on the side of the diocese in this one, and even if McKeown had been reported to police there’s no guarantee he would have been convicted or put somwhere he could not have abused the brothers. I think the alleged victims were jumping on the “sue the Church” bandwagon. Rather than go after the guy who actually abused them, they went after the one with the deep pockets. After all, McKeown is serving a 25-year prison sentence and would not be able to pay out the $33 million they were seeking. Unbelievable.
You want sympathy and help? Fine. But $20 million each? Puh-lease.
