Two sexual abuse lawsuits, one involving a former Kansas City area
Catholic priest and another filed against a church in western Missouri,
have been settled.
The Archdiocese of San Antonio announced that
it had settled a lawsuit against the Rev. John M. Fiala for nearly $1
million.
A lawsuit against New Life Bible Church in St. Joseph was
settled for an undisclosed amount.
Fiala was charged last year
with solicitation to commit capital murder after authorities said he
tried to hire a hit man to kill the teenage boy who accused him. He is
being held in a Dallas County jail on $800,000 bond.
The boy
filed a civil lawsuit accusing Fiala of repeatedly assaulting him in
2007 and 2008 — twice at gunpoint — while Fiala was a pastoral
administrator at Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in Rocksprings, Texas. The
boy was 16 at the time.
The Archdiocese of Omaha and the Diocese
of Corpus Christi, as well as a religious community, also announced that
they had settled with the victim for an undisclosed amount.
Fiala
served in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas in 2001 and 2002 and
was spiritual director to the SOLT (Society of Our Lady of the Most
Holy Trinity) community from August 1998 until mid 2001.
The SOLT
community maintains a religious house in the Diocese of Kansas City-St.
Joseph.
During that period, the diocese said, Fiala had no parish
assignment.
The New Life Bible Church lawsuit involved a youth leader who pleaded guilty in 2009 to sexually abusing a minor.
The
victim sued the church and its former youth leader Michael J. Landy,
and the church in turn sued the victim’s parents, saying they were
negligent for placing her in Landy’s care.
Rebecca Randles, a Kansas City attorney representing the victim, said the amount of the settlement was confidential.
“My clients are satisfied with the settlement and hope it will bring
closure for them, as well as help other survivors come forward if
they’ve been abused,” Randles said.