Suit claims sex abuse by priest

Tag: usa

By Kirk Mitchell

A Denver man who attended a Glendale seminary files against a Catholic order.

A 49-year-old Denver man has filed a lawsuit against a Catholic religious order claiming a priest molested him repeatedly while he attended a seminary in Denver in 1976.

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The man, identified as John Doe in the suit filed in Denver County District Court on Tuesday, said he was sexually abused by Father Mark Matson, who was the rector of St. Andrew's Seminary in Glendale.

Matson is serving a 20-year prison term in Hawaii for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy while working as a priest.

The suit — filed by Englewood lawyer Alan Molk and Adam Horowitz, a Miami lawyer whose practice has handled numerous priest sex-abuse complaints, including two in the Pueblo Catholic diocese — names the Theatine Fathers, a religious order formed in Colorado, as a defendant.

Calls on Wednesday to the Theatine order were referred to Father Lorenzo Uribe, who didn't answer his phone and provided no way to leave a message.

According to the complaint, John Doe met Matson when he was a prospective student visiting St. Andrew's Seminary in 1976.

He stayed in the student dorms, and Matson fondled him during the night, according to the suit. When the boy later enrolled at St. Andrew's as a ninth-grader, Matson continued to abuse the boy throughout the school year. Eventually, the boy was raped by Matson while he was unconscious, the suit says.

When the student tried to confront Matson about the incident, Matson expelled him, claiming to have found marijuana in the boy's personal belongings, the lawsuit says.

Matson had previously been accused of molesting two boys in Colorado. Those charges were dropped in 1987. The accuser in the new Colorado case is seeking more than $1 million in compensation.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

Tag: historical