A man is suing the Diocese of Greensburg and Bishop Edward Malesic for alleged sexual abuse when he was a child. The man, now age 40, claims in the lawsuit that the Rev. Joseph L. Sredzinski began abusing him in 1991 when he was 11 years old and continued until he was 17.
Sredzinski, who died in 2015, served at the former St. Joseph Church in Everson, Fayette County, from 1989 to 1999.Â
It is reported that the Everson mayor reported an incident to the diocese officials in 1991 where police found Sredzinski parked with a boy at night in a cemetery as well as other reports of inappropriate relationships the priest had with boys.
The grand jury identified over 300 priests who were accused of sexually assaulting and abusing hundreds of children over the past several decades.
Sredzinski is named on a list of priests in the Greensburg diocese with “credible and substantiated allegations (of sexual abuse) against them.” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges Sredzinski began “grooming” the victim for sex after the boy became “impoverished and had been abandoned by his father.”
The victim, who now lives in Hawaii, alleges Sredzinski raped him in the church rectory and during at least 25- 30 trips to Washington, D.C., for Church sponsored events, where they shared a hotel room during the visits to Washington and slept in the same bed.
Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was bishop of Pittsburgh between 2006 and 2018, also was named as a defendant.
The victim alleges that “on a few occasions” Wuerl witnessed him being abused by Sredzinski and did not do anything to stop it.
The lawsuit claims, when the victim was 13, he tried to report the abuse by leaving two messages with the Greensburg bishop’s office, but his calls never were returned.
The victim is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
