 |
| La Jarvis D. Love is photographed in his home in Senatobia, Miss., Sunday, June 9, 2019. Love says he was sexually abused by a Franciscan friar at a Catholic grade school in Greenwood. (Photo: Wong Maye-E / Associated Press) |
The IHOP in Southhaven, Mississippi, was
an unlikely place to settle a sex abuse claim against a Catholic
priest. But in January, the leader of the Franciscan
community in suburban Milwaukee slid into a booth across from a
35-year-old victim and offered to pay $15,000 in exchange for silence
about years of alleged abuse by another friar.
Father
James G. Gannon, provincial minister for the Franciscan friars based in
Franklin, arrived at the crowded pancake house with copies of a legal
settlement for La Jarvis D. Love, who had arrived with his wife and
three young children.
As La Jarvis skimmed the
four-page agreement, his thoughts flickered back more than two decades
to the physical and sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of an
Appleton native who taught at a Catholic grade school in Greenwood,
Mississippi. He told Gannon he wasn't sure $15,000 was enough.
"He
said if I wanted more, I would have to get a lawyer and have my lawyer
call his lawyer," La Jarvis told the Associated Press. "Well, we don't
have lawyers. We felt like we had to take what we could."
No comments:
Post a Comment