Alaska: woman withdraws accusation against priest

August 04, 2010

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a missionary priest in Alaska after the plaintiff withdrew her claim. The plaintiff originally alleged that she had been abused by Father Gerald Ornowski, MIC in the early 1990s when she was a minor.

In the early 1990s, Father Ornowski was ministering in Stebbins, a western Alaskan town of under 600. The clerical abuse that had earlier taken place in Stebbins was the subject of a Los Angeles Times story that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

“Father Gerald’s ministry, first in rural Alaska and then for more than a decade at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a chaplain and pastor, has been marked by holiness and distinction,” said Bishop Donald Kettler of Fairbanks. “I am glad his name has been cleared.”

 

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Further information:

• Abuse case against Fairbanks priest dismissed (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
• Missionary's Dark Legacy (Los Angeles Times)
• 2006 Pulitzer finalist (Los Angeles Times)