The four, identified in lawsuits as John or Jane Does, told about 100
people that they were abused as children by priests, and described
their later battles with guilt, shame and substance abuse. The
disclosures followed those in December of two men who are suing the
archdiocese.
“For me, I find this is a way to shed the guilt and shame I carried
around for 40 years,” said John Lund, 54, who contends he was repeatedly
raped by Clive Lynn in the early 1970s when Lynn pastored St. Therese
of the Infant Jesus Parish in Albuquerque.
,,,
Both women said they were sexually abused as girls by Walter Cassidy
while he pastored at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in the late 1960s.
Cassidy also pastored at churches in Taos and Mora. He died in 1994.
“This monster took my innocence from me,” said Diana Abeyta, 56, of
Santa Fe who said Cassidy raped her repeatedly from the ages of 8 to 10
when she sang in the choir at her family church. “He used his authority
to threaten me, to frighten me. I thought he was my only chance of
getting to heaven because he was doing God’s work.”
,,,
Louie Toya, 54, a member of Jemez Pueblo, attended St. Catherine Indian
School in Santa Fe in his early teens, where he alleges in a lawsuit he
was raped by Dennis Huff, a Franciscan brother. Toya said he ran away
from the school and struggled with alcoholism for much of his life.
Four ID themselves as survivors of sexual abuse – ABQJournal Online
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