Lawsuit Against the Dioceses of Orlando and Gary Indiana Moving Forward Slowly
Several years ago now, I filed suit on behalf of a young victim of priest sex abuse in Orlando. We are just now taking depositions. The defendants in the lawsuit, the Dioceses of Orlando and Gary have been slow to give us church documents, if they produce them at all. They've been even slower in producing witnesses for deposition. We've taken a few depositions and it's interesting to note that Sister Lucy Vasquez, OP, former Chancellor of the Diocese of Orlando and a canon lawyer, stated that Orlando did not have a "secret archive" when she was the Chancellor (Bishop Dorsey said they did have a secret file when he was deposed). Sr. Lucy's testimony is interesting since canon law (church law) requires each diocese to maintain a secret archive. Later in her deposition, she refused to call the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church a scandal.
Denial and the nefarious need to protect the institution of the Church brings many church leaders to neglect the welfare of children and allow the crisis of sexual abuse to grow and fester. As a trial lawyer, it's my job to get at the truth so that this scandal of sexual abuse is brought to a halt once and for all. If the Church is unwilling to deal with the problem, its up to the civil and criminal courts to expose these heinous acts and seek justice.