New details raise questions about how officials handled abuse allegations at Franciscan University.
Both Franciscan University of Steubenville and its sponsoring religious order said Friday they would not comment on newly surfaced allegations, which claim that officials mishandled spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse reports from the victim of Fr. David Morrier, a former university chaplain who was convicted this year of sexual assault.
The newly emerged allegations raise questions about statements in which the university and the Sacred Heart Province of the Third Order Regular Franciscans claimed they were not aware of sexual abuse allegations against Morrier until 2015.
Morrier was sentenced in March to five years probation and a lifetime of sex offender registration, after he took a plea bargain on charges of rape and sexual battery.
To avoid trial, the priest pled guilty to one count of sexual battery against a university student he is alleged to have groomed for years before committing serial sexual abuse, including multiple acts of rape.
The detailed allegations are part of an unfiled lawsuit, drafted by the attorney for Morrier’s victim. The suit was provided July 20 to attorneys and a mediator as part of settlement negotiations between the victim, the university, and the Franciscan province. The negotiations ended earlier this year with an undisclosed settlement.
But the draft lawsuit was sent this week to The Pillar and several other journalists, and was subsequently posted online. It has been reposted several times on social media, prompting sharp criticism of the university.
The unfiled suit alleges that Morrier served as a spiritual director for a female student who was “suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to years of sexual and psychological abuse,” along with a history of alcohol and drug abuse.
It charges that the priest began subjecting her in 2008 to “deliverance” sessions, claiming that she was being attacked by demons and suffering generational curses, and that he gradually began to exercise control over her life and her self-identity, even prohibiting her from the sacramental ministry of other priests.
The suit alleges that Morrier serially coerced and manipulated the victim, and involved several other people in deliverance sessions, all of whom allegedly affirmed that the plaintiff was possessed by demons. Among them were university employees.
The suit charges that in one instance, the plaintiff was held against her will for a week, while Morrier and others allegedly said she was in danger of being murdered by “a coven of demons.”
In 2010, the suit charges, Morrier began incorporating abusive “exorcism” rites involving numerous people into their relationship, and in the same year, the priest allegedly told the plaintiff that he was sexually attracted to her, a fact the priest described graphically, and for which he blamed his victim, according to the draft lawsuit.
The suit charges that in the context of “deliverance ministry,” Morrier began sexually assaulting his victim in autumn 2010, and continued to do so until 2013. The suit says that when the student became pregnant because of Morrier’s assaults in 2011, he urged her to undergo an abortion.
The priest subsequently blamed the pregnancy and abortion on a demon, the suit alleged, and manipulated the plaintiff to say the same.
Some of the abuse detailed in the lawsuit was also chronicled, albeit in less detail, in an impact statement filed ahead of Morrier’s criminal sentencing.
But the suit also alleged specific details about the plaintiff’s efforts to report her abuse to university officials.
The draft lawsuit charged that:
“In early Spring of 2013, after a failed suicide attempt, Plaintiff met with Father Shawn Roberson, University Chaplain and tried to engage him in the nature of the deliverance sessions, including the sexual abuse, at which time Roberson put his hand up and said, ‘I’m going to stop you right there, I’m sure if I go home tonight, and ask Fr. Morrier about this, which I intend to do, he will have a different story, so instead of sitting here gossiping, which is a sin, why don’t we focus on why we are here and that is you and your problems.’”
“Within two days of Plaintiff speaking to Roberson, Morrier made arrangements to see her; advised that Roberson had reported her disclosures to him,” the suit alleged.
Roberson, who is still university chaplain at Franciscan University, did not respond to a request for comment.
By email, The Pillar asked Franciscan University whether the allegation against Roberson had been investigated, or whether he had been accused on other occasions of mishandling abuse allegations.
In response to that and other questions, the university told The Pillar that “The Settlement Agreement is confidential, by agreement of the parties, and we have no further comment beyond the statement in the Historic Review Report,” a document which does not mention Roberson.
The university did not respond to follow-up questions.
New allegations charge Franciscan University abuse cover up
More faux-Catholics!