A new lawsuit alleges that a Catholic priest sexually abused a pregnant teenager who met with him for marriage counseling in Canonsburg in 1982 and that the Diocese of Pittsburgh ignored her father’s subsequent complaints.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, accuses the late Rev. Paul E. Pindel of abuse.
The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe and in her 50s, is suing the Diocese of Pittsburgh, current Bishop David Zubik and his predecessor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl. Neither had yet become bishops in 1982, but the lawsuit is alleging a pattern of cover-up that was revealed only with a 2018 grand jury report.
The diocese has not yet received the lawsuit and cannot comment, said its spokesman, the Rev. Nicholas Vaskov.
Father Pindel was among the more than 90 priests identified last year by a statewide grand jury into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The allegation of newly revealed fraud, like the claims in raft of similar recent lawsuits, seeks to avoid the barrier posed by the statute of limitations over decades-old abuse cases.
The lawsuit claims the diocese knew or should have known about Father Pindel’s predatory behavior and failed to stop him.
The grand jury said the diocese received multiple allegations since 2002 of past sexual abuse by Father Pindel of boys dating back to 1957. The lawsuit claims it knew about his misconduct earlier than that and said it ignored repeated reports by the victim’s father.
The lawsuit describes the alleged abuse in graphic terms.
It said that when the plaintiff was 15 or 16 in 1982, she became pregnant and decided to marry the child’s father at St. Genevieve Church in Canonsburg, where Father Pindel was then assigned.
Father Pindel told her she needed to undergo individual counseling with him prior to marriage and met in the rectory, according to the lawsuit.
He allegedly asked her to tell how she got pregnant and insisted she tell whether she had engaged in oral or anal sex.
“Father Pindel then placed her hand on his erect penis and requested for her to show him how she became pregnant,” the lawsuit said.
“The Plaintiff immediately left the rectory and called her father to pick her up” and told her parents what happened, it alleged. The diocese allegedly ignored the father’s complaints and eventually transferred Father Pindel to another parish, it said.
Father Pindel died in 1991 at age 65 after being in ordained ministry for 40 years.
Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.
First Published: January 18, 2019, 7:41 p.m.
