For the first time, former Roman Catholic priest Harold Robert White has been accused of molesting a child before he entered the priesthood.
In one of four lawsuits filed Wednesday against the Denver archdiocese, an unnamed plaintiff alleges that White molested him at Holy Family school in Denver while White was still a seminarian in 1959 or 1960.
The man alleges that he told the principal that White made him feel “creepy” and was doing “queer things” to him. The lawsuit claims that the principal – a nun – grabbed the boy’s hair, slammed his head against a blackboard and told him never to speak of it again.
In June 1960, White was ordained a priest; 19 lawsuits have been filed in recent months charging that the archdiocese knew White had been accused of molesting kids but continued to move him from parish to parish.
White is accused of child sex abuse through the early 1980s. He has been out of public ministry since 1993 and was removed from the priesthood in 2004.
Two other suits filed Wednesday by unnamed men accuse White of child sex abuse in the 1960s: at St. Catherine’s church in Denver and St. John the Evangelist parish in Loveland. A fourth man, Randy Becker of Wyoming, also filed suit claiming he was abused in Loveland.
The archdiocese is seeking to move the lawsuits from state to federal court, arguing that First Amendment issues of religious freedom are at stake.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) members handed out pamphlets outside 12:15 p.m. Mass Wednesday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. The fliers accused Archbishop Charles Chaput of trying to thwart the lawsuits on legal technicalities.
“We believe it’s the silence and donations of Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver that’s allowing the archbishop to use legal hardball tactics against the victims,” said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, SNAP president.
Jeanette DeMelo, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said the archdiocese had not been served with the new lawsuits but added: “We are deeply saddened by any kind of allegation, and we take them seriously and work to care for all those involved.”
