{"id":5255,"date":"2018-11-14T23:05:14","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T07:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=5255"},"modified":"2018-11-15T07:46:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:46:51","slug":"post3-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=5255","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSeattle Archdiocese pays nearly $7 million to settle men\u2019s claims that six priests abused them as boys\u201d, The Seattle Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lewis Kamb, November 13, 2018<\/p>\n

Jim Hauer and the five other men each claim they were victimized as children decades ago by priests assigned to churches and schools throughout Western Washington. In addition to receiving settlements, several expressed a demand that the church reveal its infamous “secret files” that for years protected and enabled abusers.<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019d just finished the eighth grade and was pursuing a plan to devote his life to God when Jim Hauer met the priest who he says introduced him to evil.<\/p>\n

Back then, in 1976, Hauer said he \u201cdidn\u2019t understand\u201d how Father Theodore Marmo \u2014 a supervisor of the Seattle Archdiocese\u2019s seminary studies program at John F. Kennedy High School in Burien \u2014 allegedly groomed him for abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was innocent of thought,\u201d Hauer recalled this week.<\/p>\n

But now, some four decades later, Hauer can plainly recognize the tactics his alleged rapist employed: How Marmo separated him from the other boys his age; how the priest took him skiing and to movies; how he hired Hauer for jobs that kept the boy at St. Edwards Hall, the live-in seminary, over weekends and otherwise \u201cenabled him to take advantage of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades later, memories of what Marmo did to him mostly remained buried deep in Hauer\u2019s mind until two years ago. That\u2019s when the then-53-year-old San Francisco-based technology sales executive and married father of two sons received an unexpected call. A legal investigator in Seattle was on the line, checking into another man\u2019s abuse claims about the priest.<\/div>\n

\u201cThat brought forth just a load of memories,\u201d\u00a0Hauer said.<\/p>\n

The deluge of dark secrets from his past forced Hauer to finally cope with what had happened, and eventually led him to file his own lawsuit against Seattle\u2019s Archdiocese.<\/p>\n

His case is among a spate of sexual-abuse claims separately brought by six men that the archdiocese recently settled by collectively paying nearly $7 million. Hauer and the five other men each claim they were victimized as children decades ago by priests assigned to churches and schools throughout Western Washington. Each man also claimed the archdiocese failed to protect him from abusive priests despite knowing the dangers they posed.<\/p>\n

All of the accused priests \u2014 Marmo, James McGreal, Paul Conn, John Forrester, Thomas Pitsch and Michael Cody<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 were identified on the archdiocese\u2019s list of credibly accused priests and clergy<\/a> published in January 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese priests represent probably six of the most notorious and prolific abusers on the list,\u201d said Michael Pfau, a Seattle attorney whose firm has represented scores of clients who\u2019ve alleged clergy abuse, including the six men who received the recent settlements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was innocent of thought,\u201d Hauer recalled this week.<\/div>\n