New York Man To Sue St. John’s, Alleging Abuse

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A New York man is suing St. John's Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict in Collegeville, alleging a former abbot abused him years ago at a Bronx church.

Details about the lawsuit are being announced Tuesday.

Attorneys for the alleged victim say in a news release their client was abused by Abbot Timothy Kelly in 1966 and 1967, when the victim was an altar boy at St. Anselm's church in New York, where Kelly was an associate pastor.

Kelly became abbot at St. John's in 1992. A year later, he co-founded the Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute, saying sexual abuse by monks was immoral.

But according to the news release, former monk Patrick Wall says Kelly was unreceptive to concerns of abuse victims. Wall plans to be at Tuesday's news conference.

Kelly died last year.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)