Two more men sue archdiocese over alleged abuse by Hastings priest

Two more men filed lawsuits Tuesday against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, alleging a former Hastings priest sexually abused them when they were in grade school, their attorney said.

In 1967, one of the plaintiffs told his Guardian Angels school principal, a nun, in Hastings that the Rev. Thomas Stitts was abusing him, said Patrick Noaker of Jeff Anderson and Associates. He was about 10 at the time.

"He was told that he should never say anything like that about the Father, and if he did, there must be something wrong with him," Noaker said at a news conference.

The other man said he was abused in 1966 or 1967, when he was 9 or 10 years old. The lawsuit alleges that Stitts "forcefully" touched the boy's genitals at the church and at the rectory.

The church later became St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Both men came forward after hearing of a lawsuit filed by another alleged Stitts victim in March, Noaker said. They did not know each other as children, he said. The attorney said others also would be suing.

Stitts died of cancer at age 50 in 1985 while pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in New Brighton.

The lawsuits filed Tuesday allege that the archdiocese committed fraud by representing to the plaintiffs that Stitts was not a danger to children.

The March lawsuit involves four men who said Stitts abused them while a pastor at St. Leo's parish in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul and the Church of St. George in Long Lake, Minn. He was transferred from one church to another after reports of the abuse were disclosed, the suits allege.

Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said it denies the allegations of misrepresentation and fraud.

The first lawsuits involving Stitts were filed in 1995. Attorneys for those plaintiffs were "given full access to information about how the archdiocese responded to claims of sexual abuse by Father Stitts prior to his death in 1985," McGrath said in an earlier statement.

"It is unreasonable for these attorneys to now allege that information about Father Stitts was kept secret when it has been well-known for over 25 years," he said.

SIC: NBCV