Article Title
Former altar boy was abused by a Knoxville priest and ex-bishop, lawsuit alleges
Link to Article: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2019/07/22/sexual-abuse-lawsuit-east-tennessee-man-alleges-knoxville-catholic-priests-abused-him-child/1791075001/
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
Author(s): Amy McRary
Date: July 22, 2019
Synopsis of / Excerpts from Article
According to the article:
An East Tennessee man says he was repeatedly sexually abused by a longtime priest and the first bishop of the Knoxville diocese, and was offered up to visiting priests for “inappropriate sexual conduct” in a church sacristy.
Attorneys for Blount County resident Michael Boyd are suing the Diocese of Knoxville in a Knox County Circuit Court lawsuit filed July 18. Boyd’s lawyer said he is OK with his name being used in news reports.
While the diocese is the only named defendant, the 20-page lawsuit claims the former altar boy was repeatedly abused in the 1990s by longtime Knoxville priest Xavier Mankel and at least twice by Bishop Anthony O’Connell.
O’Connell, who died in 2012, is the best-known figure named in the suit. He became the first bishop of the Knoxville diocese when it was formed in 1988. Ten years later, he became bishop in Palm Beach, Florida. He resigned in 2002 after admitting inappropriate conduct with minors in Missouri decades earlier and before he was in Knoxville.
The suit alleged that Mankel, a priest for 56 years, was Boyd’s main predator. Naming Mankel as an abuser is likely to shock many Knoxville Roman Catholics. He hasn’t been named on lists of priests accused of abuse that have been released by Catholic authorities or survivor support groups.