Judge sides with Maine religious order in child sexual abuse case

A judge has ended a lawsuit filed by a woman who said priests within a Catholic religious order in Maine sexually abused her more than 70 years ago.

The woman, who filed her lawsuit in late 2022 under the name “Jane Doe,” was younger than 8 years old when she said priests for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate abused her at homes in Bucksport and Bar Harbor.

U.S. District Judge Lance Walker issued a ruling in the religious order’s favor on Tuesday, saying the woman did not present enough evidence to show that the Oblates was aware of or liable for the alleged abuse.

The woman, who now lives in Oregon, was living at a Catholic orphanage in Fall River, Massachusetts, at the time. The orphanage was run by another organization that had ties to the Oblates.

As a child, the woman said, the nuns at the orphanage brought her to Maine on several occasions to sing and dance for Oblates priests. Instead, the woman alleged, the priests sexually abused her. Her allegations involved two priests — the Revs. Arthur Craig and Francis Demers — although neither are named defendants in the case.

Demers has since died, and Craig, who left the Oblates decades ago, denied in a deposition for this case, ever abusing a child. Neither man had any reports of misconduct, including sexual abuse, in their personnel files for the Oblates, according to court records.

The woman’s attorneys declined to speak with a reporter Wednesday about the judgment. It’s unclear if they’re considering an appeal. Attorneys for the Oblates did not respond to an email seeking to discuss the ruling.

The woman spent decades repressing memories of her abuse, her attorneys said, and it wasn’t until she saw a TV documentary that she started coming to terms with what had happened.

A woman suing the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, pictured on the right as a young girl, says she was sexually abused at homes in Maine the Oblates brought her to in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of attorney Ashley Pileika

She soon connected with another person who said they had been abused by Oblates priests, but even then it was painful for the woman to come forward, they said.

The woman decided to sue the Oblates after being asked to help with another person’s lawsuit. Her attorneys said she “recognized immediately” some of the photographed priests as her own abusers.

The state had just removed the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims, allowing people to sue no matter how much time has passed. That law has been contested by the Catholic Diocese and is currently awaiting a ruling from the state’s highest court.

She sued the Oblates for claims of negligent supervision and premises liability, arguing the Oblates are at fault because she said the abuse occurred on their property in Maine.

Attorneys for the Oblates said the woman hadn’t shown enough evidence to support these claims and that they couldn’t be held liable for abuse they didn’t know about.

Walker agreed, even as the woman’s attorneys pointed out that another Oblates priest admitted to abusing children in Augusta in the 1970s. (The judge pointed out that this was still more than 15 years after the alleged abuse against their client.)

The fact “that the Oblates did not know nor had reason to know of Revs. Craig or Demers’ propensity for sexual abuse ultimately defeats Doe’s claim,” Walker said.