CV NEWS FEED // An Indiana priest is suing his diocese and vicar general for defamation and fraud, alleging that a March 2022 diocesan statement about his suspension from public ministry was misleading and damaged his reputation.
On March 8, 2024, Fr. James DeOreo filed the lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana, and the diocese’s Vicar General Fr. Theodore Dudzinski, seeking $10 million in damages.
The March 12, 2022 statement announced that DeOreo was suspended from public ministry after the “diocese received allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor that violates the Essential Norms and the Diocesan Code of Conduct for Clergy.”
The statement added that the allegation
was reported to Indiana Child Protective Services. A preliminary investigation is ongoing, and precautionary measures are in place according to Canon 1722 of the Code of Canon Law. During the investigation, Father De Oreo should be treated with the presumption of innocence.
…The safety and wellbeing of our children and young people are of the utmost importance. We all share a commitment to be part of the Church’s mission to respect and protect people of every age. We invite you to join us in prayer for the healing guidance of the Holy Spirit on behalf of all who have been victims of abuse.
DeOreo had requested that the diocese retract or clarify the March 2022 statement, especially because the words “inappropriate conduct with a minor” were assumed by local news outlets that publicized his suspension to mean sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit.
“The Diocese has refused to retract the statement or otherwise clarify that DeOreo was not suspended for sexual misconduct with a minor, instead allowing the misinformation created by the March Statement to persist,” the lawsuit reads.
“It is unfortunate that this litigation against the Diocese and Fr. Dudzinski is necessary,” DeOreo’s lawyer Michael Einterz stated, according to FOX 59.
“Fr. DeOreo offered the Diocese an opportunity to work to restore his reputation while still retaining the option to pursue legal action if such steps were not forthcoming,” Einterz added. “The Diocese rejected that offer, which left Fr. DeOreo with no choice but to use the courts to restore his good name and reputation.”
In January of 2021, a parishioner in the diocese filed a complaint alleging that DeOreo, “while employed by the Diocese and stationed at St. Alphonsus, had abused the complainer by encouraging him to fast and engage in other spiritual and ascetic practices, eventually causing the Complainer to suffer an eating disorder,” according to DeOreo’s lawsuit.
When the complaint was made, DeOreo was suspended from public ministry. An independent investigator concluded that the allegation “was unsubstantiated, that [DeOreo] had not ‘caused’ the Complainer’s eating disorder, and that no abuse had occurred.”
When the investigation concluded, the diocese offered to pay for the Complainer’s psychotherapy, as a means of helping the Complainer with the eating disorder, although it acknowledged that DeOreo had not caused the disorder.
The lawsuit alleges that Vicar General Fr. Theodore Dudzinski “claimed a right, ostensibly on behalf of the Diocese, to sit in on Complainer’s therapy sessions between February and September, 2021” because the diocese paid for the therapy.
The lawsuit alleges that Dudzinski did sit in on the therapy sessions, during which “Dudzinski informed Complainer and his therapist that the Diocese would be inclined to either reopen the investigation, or initiate a new investigation if Complainer’s allegations were of a sexual nature.”
The Complainer submitted a written allegation against DeOreo in October of 2021, beginning a new internal investigation.
According to the Pillar, the October 2021 letter written by the Complainer reads,
My therapist and I have been working with the Diocese to provide greater clarity to the situation. As I have gone through counseling, I have been able to come to terms with aspects of the abuse that I had previously been unable to; namely sexual harassment and grooming on the part of Fr. DeOreo.
The Pillar reported, “The parishioner claimed that DeOreo had committed psychological abuse, with the priest ‘grooming me toward sexual assault.’”
The lawsuit alleges that in the letter, the Complainer also wrote, “I would like to be clear from the start, at no point was there any sexual contact.”
Following the letter, the diocese began an internal investigation and issued a November decree that restricted DeOreo “from public ministry with youth or with any parishioner of St. Alphonsus, the parish of the Complainer and DeOreo’s previous post,” the lawsuit read. The lawsuit noted that “[n]othing in the November Decree restricted DeOreo’s non-ministry related communication with minors or presence around minors.”
“From November 19, 2021 until March 7, 2022, the Diocese continued to negotiate with the Complainer and his counsel regarding a potential settlement and payment, but made no further efforts to investigate the veracity of the new allegations,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit adds that during these negotiations, “Dudzinski misrepresented the substance of the November (original) Decree to Complainer and/or his family… suggesting that DeOreo was prohibited from contact at all with minors and/or that DeOreo was entirely suspended.”
This misrepresentation allegedly resulted in the Complainer’s mother telephoning the diocese in March of 2022 “to complain about DeOreo’s presence at a Carmel High School swim meet, incorrectly believing such presence was in violation of the November Decree,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit explains that DeOreo was sitting with a family who invited him to attend the swim meet on March 7, and did not engage in any public ministry. Upon receiving the telephone message from the Complainer’s mother, DeOreo was removed from public ministry. The March 2022 statement was issued several days later.
DeOreo is suing on accounts of defamation against the diocese, and fraud against the vicar general. He has expressed willingness to “immediately conclude” the litigation if Bishop Timothy Dougherty retracts the statement.
