CNA Staff, Mar 14, 2024 / 12:45 pm
A priest in Indiana is suing his diocese for fraud and defamation after he was suspended over what the clergyman claims were false allegations of sexually abusing a minor.
Father James DeOreo in a filing at Boone County Circuit Court earlier this month alleged that the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, along with its vicar general, Father Theodore Dudzinski, committed both defamation and fraud, respectively, against DeOreo in a yearslong conflict over accusations against the priest.
The filing alleges that in January 2021, a parishioner alleged that DeOreo “abused the [parishioner] by encouraging him to fast and engage in other spiritual and ascetic practices,” which eventually led the individual to “suffer an eating disorder.”
A subsequent investigation found that “no abuse had occurred.” The diocese, however, “agreed to pay for the Complainer’s psychotherapy” in order to help him cope with his eating disorder.