Phillip Bucher, the priest at the center of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese, will be deposed Thursday, April 20, in Springfield.
A notice filed Tuesday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri indicated the deposition will be videotaped. The questioning will take place just two days after lawyers for Bucher, the Diocese, Bishop John Liebrecht, Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Ozarks Catholic Church finish deposing Glenna McKitterick, the woman who filed the lawsuit.
Ms. McKitterick claimed she was fired from her job with the church after she refused to submit to Father Phillip Bucher's sexual advances. More information about the case can be found at this link.
It's interesting to note that incidents of sexual misconduct among Catholic clery make the news - and should - but that the local media has largely ignored the fact that Father Mark Bozek, the "renegade" priest who left this diocese to pastor a Catholic church in St. Louis was formerly associate pastor of St. Canera's in Neosho before he went to Springfield's St. Agnes. Each Friday, in the NDN's list of local churches, Bozek's name remains listed as associate pastor of the local Catholic church along with another priest no longer in the area.
ReplyDeleteNeither the Neosho or Joplin papers ever noted that Bozek had been in Neosho which was, in fact, his first assignment as a priest after ordination nor did they attempt to talk with parishioners about the man. Apparently sex, alleged or real, is better copy than a priest who steps out in faith to do what he feels is right even if his Church says it is wrong!