A man, who alleges that he was sexually abused by a priest at school for the deaf, has withdrawn a federal lawsuit against the Vatican, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The federal suit had been filed in Milwaukee by an alleged victim of the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who was believed to have molested as many as 200 deaf boys at the St. John School for the Deaf, which is now closed but had operated in St. Francis, Wis.
The attorney for the plaintiff in the Vatican suit, Jeffrey Anderson, also represents that same client in a bankrupty proceeding involving the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the Journal Sentinel reported. The paper quoted Anderson as saying that his client had decided to concentrate his efforts, along with other alleged sex abuse victims, “at the archdiocese level.”
The Milwaukee lawsuit against the Vatican was filed in April 2010, and was withdrawn Friday. Another lawsuit filed against the Vatican by a man who claimed he was abused by a priest was withdrawn in Kentucky in 2010, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Anderson also told the Milwaukee newspaper that his client’s decision to pull the suit against the Vatican was in part prompted by a decision by U.S. Bankrupty Judge Susan Kelley. On Thursday, she refused to dismiss two bankrupcy claims filed by victims abused in the 1970s and 1980s.
According to the Journal Sentinel, Kelley said a trial will have to decide when a six-year statute of limitations began running on the victims’ allegations.
