The Vatican had sought to halt the lawsuit accusing the Roman Catholic Church of transferring Rev. Andrew Ronan from parish to parish – starting in Benburb, Co Tyrone, and moving to St. Phillip High School in Chicago and then to St. Albert's Church in Portland, Oregon – despite repeated accusations of sexual abuse in all three positions.
Ronan's history of sexual abuse allegedly dated to the 1950s at the Benburb priory.
Before his death in 1982 he admitted to abusing three boys at the Chicago High School, and famously said he'd wondered why he'd been transferred to a position at an all-boys school after the previous allegations in Ireland.
The plaintiff in the current lawsuit claims to have been abused by Ronan in the mid-1960s during his stint at St. Albert's Church in Portland. The church finally removed Ronan from the priesthood in 1966.
The suit claims there was an international conspiracy on the part of church leaders to move Fr Ronan from Ireland, covering up the allegations and putting countless young people at risk.




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