Mystery Man Says Catholic Priest Raped Him 39 Years Ago

A lawsuit filed by a 50-year-old man accused one Catholic priest of a brutal, vicious rape and another of providing marijuana to the young victim after the attack.

The man, identified only as “John Doe,” was a parishioner at St. Pius X in Lombard when he was an 11-year-old in 1976, the lawsuit said.

Two priests at the parish, Henry Slade and Philip Dedera, each “knew the other was a pedophile who sexually and emotionally abused boys … while acting as priests and counselors,” the suit said.

On the day he was raped, the 11-year-old skipped Mass and got caught by Slade, the suit said. Slade then “ordered him to go into the rectory at St. Pius X, and specifically to Father Henry Slade’s bedroom.”

Slade “directed” the child to “perform oral sex on him” but the boy refused, the lawsuit said. Slade then “physically attacked the (boy), forcibly pinned him down onto the bed and anally raped him.”

Throughout the attack, the child was “yelling, shouting and otherwise crying out, making a significant amount of noise to be easily heard outside the room,” the suit said. Dedera was allegedly just outside but did nothing to stop the rape.

When Slade was finished with the child, Dedera took him to his own room, the lawsuit said. He then provided the boy with marijuana, telling him, “This will make you forget what happened.”

The boy did forget, the lawsuit said, repressing the memory for the next 28 years until, in 2004, he told his mother about it. Ten years after that, the man was first treated for drug and alcohol abuse, as well as “psychological injuries” caused by the abuse of Slade and Dedera.

Now, the man suffers from “both mental illness and developmental disabilities,” and “because of his excessive use of intoxicants or drugs he spends or wastes his estate to expose himself to want and suffering.”

The lawsuit names Slade, Dedera and the Diocese of Joliet as defendants.

Edward Flavin, the spokesman for the diocese, said he had yet to see the lawsuit.

“I have not seen a copy of this lawsuit and was not aware,” Flavin said. “Please know that we take these matters extremely seriously and will review it accordingly.”