Member of family close to priest files abuse suit

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times staff reporter

	John Cornelius
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

But now one family member says he, too, was sexually abused as a minor by Cornelius.

Timothy McKenna, 45, of Idaho Falls, accuses Cornelius of abusing him from about 1969 to 1975, when McKenna was about 10 to 16. In a lawsuit filed recently in King County Superior Court, McKenna claims the abuse happened while Cornelius was a student at Mount Angel Seminary near Portland, then later as a priest-in-training at St. Thomas seminary in Kenmore, and as a priest with the Seattle Archdiocese.

In an interview, McKenna said he "felt very confused" when abuse allegations against Cornelius came to public attention in April 2002 and he read accounts in which his family defended the priest. "That's when I started coming to terms with the issues myself," he said.

For years he had blamed himself for the alleged abuse and only spoke of it with his family in the summer of 2002, shortly after more accusers against Cornelius came forward.

Cornelius had befriended the McKenna family while Timothy's brother, Steve McKenna, was a high-school student at Mount Angel. Cornelius would visit the McKenna family home, and the family informally adopted him. For a time, Cornelius even went by the name John McKenna.

"I'm glad to have discovered this," said Steve McKenna, 49, of Manson, Chelan County. "It's a very sad situation for our family to deal with."

Timothy McKenna's suit also names the Archdioceses of Seattle and Portland; the Diocese of Boise, which sponsored Cornelius as a seminary student; and the Benedictine Abbey of Mount Angel, which runs the seminary.

Cornelius' attorney could not be reached for comment yesterday. An attorney for Mount Angel Abbey said officials had not yet read the lawsuit but would investigate the claims. A Portland Archdiocese official said the archdiocese should not have been named in the suit because it has no supervisory oversight over Mount Angel.

A spokeswoman for the Boise Diocese said she could not comment on pending cases.

Seattle Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni said "the archdiocese regrets any pain caused to Mr. McKenna."

Cornelius was placed on leave from Immaculate Conception Church in Everett in April 2002 after being accused for the second time in six years of sexually molesting teenage boys in the 1970s. Subsequently, at least a dozen men have come forward with allegations of past abuse by Cornelius. The priest resigned from active ministry in May.

One lawsuit against Cornelius has already been settled; three others — including McKenna's — are pending.

The priest lives in this area, although church officials are not sure where. Since Cornelius resigned from the ministry, "the archbishop does not have any jurisdiction over him," said Magnoni, who added the priest is still regularly reporting to a parole officer hired by the archdiocese around 1996 to monitor him.

Cornelius' case is one of 13 being evaluated by an archdiocesan board, composed primarily of lay experts, to determine suitability for ministry.

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company