Three new cases of employees against religious employers were decided this past week. There was small good news for the plaintiff in one case, and two more losses by “ministers.”
Some good news from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in an opinion by Justice Lowy in Doe v. Roman Cath. Bishop of Springfield, No. SJC-13219, 2022 WL 2976170 (Mass. July 28, 2022).
John Doe was sexually abused in a Catholic church in Massachusetts during the 1960s, when Doe was 9 to 11 years old. He was “brutally raped” by several church officials and priests, as well as by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield Christopher J. Weldon. Yes, the bishop raped the child.
Doe’s memory of the abuse was triggered in 2013, and he brought news of the abuse to the current Catholic Church. Doe clearly told them at their hearing that Weldon had raped him. Period. Nonetheless, the church and its reports stated for a while that Doe had never said anything about Weldon. They even said Doe had acknowledged Weldon did him no harm.
An independent investigator eventually got the church and the current bishop of Springfield to acknowledge that Doe had honestly—and credibly—made charges against several church officials, including Bishop Weldon. Please do not forget. This is a case about the rape of a child.
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