A third anonymous lawsuit alleging child sexual abuse by the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca was filed Friday in Delaware Superior Court against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.
In the suit, the 56-year-old plaintiff alleges more than 100 acts of sexual abuse by DeLuca from 1962 to 1965, starting when the alleged victim was 10 years old. According to the suit, the victim was an altar boy supervised by DeLuca at St. John the Beloved Church.
The suit, filed in Kent County, is the third anonymous DeLuca-related complaint filed this year and the fourth since Delaware’s Child Victim’s Act went into effect last July. The law eliminated the civil statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse and opened a two-year “window” during which previously time-barred complaints could be filed.
Robert Quill of Florida, the first to file suit under the new law, settled his case against DeLuca, the diocese and St. Elizabeth’s Church earlier this year for an undisclosed sum.
The four DeLuca-related cases filed so far cover 14 years — 1961-75 — of the priest’s 35-year ministry in the Diocese of Wilmington. DeLuca was allowed to retire to Syracuse when allegations of sexual abuse arose against him in 1993. He was arrested in 2006, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage relative and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
Attorney Stephen J. Neuberger, whose firm has represented all four DeLuca-related plaintiffs, said he expects to file two more DeLuca-related cases this month.
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