MIAMI, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A Florida man is suing the Catholic Church for sexual abuse by a priest in the 1960s that the alleged victim says he remembered only last year.
Willard Trent, 55, filed the complaint against the Archdiocese of Miami Tuesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.
Trent says the Rev. Thomas Dennehy, who died in 1999, molested him several times in 1967 and 1968 while he was an altar boy at St. John the Baptist parish in Fort Lauderdale, and that other unnamed priests joined Dennehy in the sexual acts.
The lawsuit, the first against the archdiocese that names Dennehy, states that Trent, of Fort Lauderdale, did not recall the crimes until he visited St. John the Baptist last year and spoke to a priest about his childhood, triggering the memories.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said Tuesday that Trent reported the incidents to the archdiocese last October.
``The alleged victim spoke five times to the archdiocesan victim assistance coordinator and was offered counseling that would be paid for by the archdiocese. … The allegation was reported to Dennis Siegel, Broward County State Attorney's Office, on Dec. 22. ... No other allegations have been reported against Father Dennehy,'' she said.
