Lawsuit accuses retired Missouri priest of sexual abuse

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A southern California businessman is suing a retired Missouri priest, claiming the clergyman sexually abused him in the 1950s and church leaders covered it up, The Kansas City Star reported in today's editions.

Thomas Dorrell, 62, of Valencia, Calif., claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court that the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe molested him repeatedly from 1951 through 1954. The abuse allegedly started when Dorrell was about 12.

Hoppe, of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is now 90, and living with relatives in St. Joseph. A man who answered the family's phone Monday night said Hoppe wasn't available for comment, and that he didn't think Hoppe wanted to issue a statement.

But Hoppe's attorney, James Wyrsch, said that Hoppe denies the allegations.

Dorrell alleges the abuse occurred in St. Joseph and at a Boy Scout jamboree in Southern California.

He also is suing the dioceses of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Orange County, Calif., and the archdioceses of St. Louis and Los Angeles, contending that church officials conspired to cover up the abuse.

Dorrell told The Associated Press Monday night that Hoppe was at a parish in Excelsior Springs in 1985 when he reported the sexual abuse allegations to police. But Dorrell said the diocese swept the alleged abuse "under the rug" and that no charges were filed that he was aware of. Excelsior Springs police could not immediately verify that the abuse was reported.

"I did find out that after I reported him that they moved Hoppe to a smaller parish in a small town in Missouri, where he remained until his retirement," Dorrell said.

The alleged victim said he decided to pursue the matter again after learning of a statement that Bishop Raymond J. Boland of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph made earlier this year downplaying the priest sexual abuse issue in the Kansas City area.

Boland had assured parishioners this spring that no priests currently serving the diocese's schools or parishes had ever been accused of child sex abuse.

As recently as March, Hoppe concelebrated Mass at St. James Catholic Church in St. Joseph at a Catholic Scouting Religious Awards ceremony.

"That's when I said enough is enough," Dorrell said.

He said his reason for pursuing the matter is simple.

"If I can help someone else, that's what it should all be about," he said. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese investigated the allegations against Hoppe after Dorrell contacted church officials in April. As a result, Hoppe was banned from celebrating Mass publicly and performing other sacraments, the Rev. Patrick Rush, the diocese's vicar general, told The Star last month.