An Albuquerque man has settled a suit he filed against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a Catholic ministry group that helps troubled priests over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of a priest beginning in the mid-1960s.
The attorney representing Clifford Esquibel told the Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/QP7TXD) for a story in Saturday's editions the diocese and the Servants of the Paraclete settled the case for an undisclosed amount.
Esquibel alleged the Rev. John George Weisenborn sexually molested him when Esquibel was a seventh-grade altar boy at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Albuquerque beginning in 1966 or 1967.
He sued the church and the ministry last year.
Weisenborn
was sent for treatment at a Servants of Paraclete facility in Jemez
Springs called Via Coeli in 1964 after being detained three times in
Washington D.C. for having sex with boys, according to court documents
obtained from the priest's former religious order.
The
abuse began after Weisenborn resumed pastoral duties at Albuquerque
parishes around 1966, the suit contends.
Weisenborn was formally
assigned to St. Francis Xavier in 1968 and served there into the 1970s.
The lawsuit alleged that Esquibel was "plied with alcohol" and sexually
molested by Weisenborn on several occasions at an Albuquerque motel.
The
Servants of the Paraclete opened Via Coeli in 1947 to treat priests
with alcohol and emotional problems. But almost immediately, the center
began receiving priests who had sexually abused children.
Esquibel's attorney, Brad Hall
of Albuquerque, said he asked a judge to dismiss the case last week.
The Archdiocese's attorney, Arthur Beach of Albuquerque, confirmed
Friday that the case "has been resolved" but declined to
discuss details.
The
Archdiocese and the Servants were the target of dozens of lawsuits in
the 1980s and '90s alleging that priests were molesting children.
Many
alleged that pedophile priests came to New Mexico for treatment by the
Servants of the Paraclete and were then sent to churches around the
state.
The treatment center closed in 1995.