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Archdiocese of Pittsburgh accused of not reporting sexual abuse

A lawsuit was filed  in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court  that accuses the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and co-defendant Bishop David Zubik of “protecting child sexual abusers” because they refused to provide the information to help identify the three priests that were accused of sexually abusing a New Hampshire man. 

The plaintiff, now 62, claims he faced years of sexual assault starting in the 1960’s -early 70’s at the hands of priests, which began when he was just 7 or 8 years old and a student at St. Colman’s Catholic School in Turtle Creek.

The diocese did not return a request for comment late Wednesday.

When the accuser was 14 and a patient at Woodville State Hospital in Collier, he claims additional incidents of alleged abuse happened  and at age 15 at the former New Castle Youth Development Center in Shenango.

The diocese is accused of refusing to share the names of priests who were assigned to visit Woodville hospital and New Castle youth facility at the time of the alleged abuse, according to the lawsuit.

Only one priest was identified by name in the lawsuit : the late Rev. Edward C. Maliszewski, assistant pastor of St. Colman’s Church from 1955 to 1964.

The plaintiff alleges that when he was a student there, “after acting out in class”, he was referred to Maliszewski, the elementary school’s disciplinarian, Maliszewski allegedly took the boy to the rectory, “forced him to drink wine, undressed him and assaulted him, all the while whispering in the child’s ear, ‘This is what God wanted for both of us,’” the lawsuit claims.

Rev. Maliszewski, who died in 2006,  was was accused of abusing the plaintiff in his home until the boy was removed from the school in sixth grade because of “ongoing behavioral problems,” according to the lawsuit.

By age 14, the boy was suffering from mental health issues and was a resident at Woodville State Hospital from 1970 to 1971. While there, he was sexually abused again by an unidentified priest, the lawsuit claims.

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