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  Metropolitan Area Digest

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 9, 2005

ST. LOUIS

Lawsuit accuses priest of abuse

A man sued the St. Louis Archdiocese Monday, alleging he was sexually abused by a priest as a teenager in All Saints Parish in St. Peters.

The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by "Matt Doe," said a priest named Kertz fondled the boy in 1981.

One of Doe's lawyers, Ken Chackes, said Doe was about 13 and the priest's full name is Louis Kertz. The man who brought the suit now lives outside the St. Louis area and did not want his last name used, Chackes said.

The lawsuit says church officials knew or should have known that Kertz was a danger to the boy. The suit also alleges that the church failed to report Doe's allegations to police and parishioners.

Chackes said that Kertz was transferred several weeks after the incident to Flat River, and that church officials had been told of other abuse by Kertz.

Kertz was pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Flat River until 1985, when he died of cancer at 62.

Kertz also was the first pastor of Cure of Ars in Shrewsbury, and served as an Air Force chaplain from 1954 to 1957.

 
 

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