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  Metropolitan Area Digest
Archdiocese Is Named in 2 Sex Abuse Suits

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 26, 2005

A Florida man filed a civil lawsuit in St. Louis circuit court against former St. Louis priest James Beine on Thursday. The man, 53, who filed his lawsuit as "John Doe," said he was abused by Beine at St. Monica in Creve Coeur when he was in the sixth and seventh grades. The lawsuit also named the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archbishop Raymond Burke.

The Missouri Supreme Court ordered Beine released from prison in June after overturning an indecent exposure conviction. The archdiocese recently said it has settled nine civil lawsuits for more than $400,000 alleging sexual improprieties or abuse by Beine.

A 56-year-old California woman also filed a lawsuit in St. Louis circuit court Thursday against the archdiocese and Burke. Peggy Nicholson said she had been abused at Holy Guardian Angels Church by the Rev. William Poepperling for four years beginning when she was 4 years old, according to the lawsuit.

Poepperling, who died in 1983 at the age of 78, was a pastor at St. Philip Neri in north St. Louis, Our Lady of Sorrows in south St. Louis, St. Louis of France in Bonnots Mill in Osage County, Holy Guardian Angels in St. Louis, St. Paul the Apostle in Pine Lawn and Incarnate Word in Chesterfield.

Correction

- The Rev. William Poepperling, who died in 1983, was a pastor at St. Louis of France in Osage County, Holy Guardian Angels and St. Paul the Apostle parishes. He was an assistant pastor, not a pastor, as was reported in an item in last Friday's Metro section, at St. Philip Neri and Our Lady of Sorrows parishes. He was a senior priest in residence, not a pastor, at Incarnate Word parish.

 
 

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