Sex Abuse Suit Filed Against Archdiocese of St. Louis

A man identified only as “John Doe A.J.” has filed suit against the Archdiocese of St. Louis, claiming he was sexually abused by a priest back in 1982 when the man was an altar boy. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports his is the first suit filed after a State Supreme Court ruling that effectively lifted the statute of limitations on filing this type of civil claim if the plaintiff had repressed the memory. The accused priest, Reverand John Roger McDonough, died in 1985. The suit, seeking unspecified damages, says McDonough abused the boy in a locker room at a swimming party put on by a church in Richmond Heights.