No end in sight for damages caused by Illinois priest

Jesse Bogan
St. Louis Today
Oct. 19, 2011

Jim Wisniewski's attorney was handed $6.3 million in checks a few months ago for the abuse the former altar boy said he suffered in the 1970s at the hands of an infamous priest named Raymond Kownacki.
The payout, delayed by a long fight for church records and appeals, was the fruit of a civil trial in 2008 that was the first of its kind against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville.
Kownacki was one of 14 priests removed from ministry in the diocese in the 1990s, well before the national priest abuse scandal hit fever pitch in 2002. But he has become the largest liability of them all for the diocese, with no end in sight for future damages. And not just because Kownacki continues to refer to himself as a priest.
Wisniewski's case cleared a landing strip for others to follow.

The jury agreed that the diocese fraudulently concealed abuse, which kicked over the statute of limitations hurdle that the diocese had counted on to protect it from old accusations. Jurors not only levied $2.6 million in punitive damages, but physically embraced Wisniewski when it was over.
There was no question of guilt, said juror Joe Maguire, 68, of Smithton. It was just a matter of deciding damages.
"Good God, he should have been put in prison, and they kept moving him around," he said in an interview. "And who were the people moving him around? They should have been charged with something, I would have thought, for covering up for him."
The jury accepted the argument that Wisniewski didn't realize the onslaught of damage done to him as a teenager until he was well into his 40s. On Oct. 3, a similar case — John Doe S.W. vs. Kownacki and the diocese — landed at the St. Clair County Courthouse.
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The diocese has publicly kept quiet, other than to say that it regrets any instances of childhood sexual abuse by a member of the clergy.
Ed Barbier, of the Southern Illinois Association of Priests, whose membership includes active priests in the Belleville Diocese, said the group wants Kownacki laicized, or defrocked.
"And further, that he should be held personally responsible both civilly and criminally for his actions," Barbier wrote in an email. "The Southern Illinois Association of Priests has also asked that those responsible for Kownacki's cover-up and frequent transfers be acknowledged and reprimanded."
It's possible the diocese has taken steps to laicize Kownacki and others, but the diocese would not comment.
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According to one note read into evidence in the trial, he wrote to a boy frequenting the rectory at the time: "Come up to my bedroom. If I am sleeping or not and massage me. I need it. I love you. Ray."
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He has not been convicted of a crime and thus need not register as a sex offender. He still receives benefits from the diocese, which lists him on its website as retired and on administrative leave.
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Kownacki reports to have had a stroke around 2005 and has aphasia, which has affected his speech. But standing in his nursing home earlier this month, he was well enough to answer a reporter's question.
Asked about the Doe case, he said, "I don't care," and refused to say anything more.
He no longer lives there. A woman working the front desk Tuesday wouldn't provide a forwarding address.


Full story at St. Louis Today