More details emerge as an amended lawsuit filed today adds a Greek-American altar boy as the 5th plaintiff and 7th victim alleging sexual abuse by former Greek Orthodox priest Nicholas Katinas.
The Greek-American Altar Boy — described on p. 15 of the new amended petition as “John Doe V” — allegedly endured 7 years of abuse, occurring “at least thirty times in any given year” (p. 15).
Emotional Impact to Victims
The emotional impact to alleged victims is heartbreaking. Take for example the story of an eleven-year old abuse victim who, after reporting his abuse, was told by church officials that his sexual abuse claims were not true and “Fr. Katinas could never do such a thing” (p. 12). The child’s reaction?
Doe IV ‘tried to hang himself in his efforts to “stop the [psychological] pain.” His younger sister entered the garage and interrupted this desperate act. Another time, Doe IV pulled the trigger of a gun he found at home. Luckily the gun was not loaded. Doe IV did not care.’ (pp. 14-15)
Claims of Cover-Up, Conspiracy, and Fraud
Multiple examples are cited in the petition, describing numerous troubling claims of cover-up, conspiracy and fraud, as well as disregard for sexual abuse reporting laws.
p. 19 of the petition states: “There is no evidence that law enforcement officials in Illinois or Texas were ever notified of Katinas’ sex crimes against children as required by these states’ reporting laws.”
Who Knew, And How Did They React?
Expanded details re-iterate claims that GOAA church officials received multiple reports over several years, and goes on to allege that at the local Dallas church a church secretary and the choir director both received reports of abuse (pp. 11-13). Download the diagram at the right for a summary of the lawsuit’s claims.
How Many Victims Are There?
As the above diagram shows, a chilling pattern of abuse is emerging. The lawsuit claims there were multiple victims being abused during the same time period.
The petition states on page 18: “To date only DZ, the Olympia Fields parish victim, Doe I, Doe II, Doe III, Doe IV and Doe V have had the courage to come forward. The full identities of most of Katinas’ other child-victims are currently unknown. Consequently, they may never have the needful therapy Katinas has been generously but strategically afforded by the GOAA. There has been no offer of therapy by any of the Defendants to any of the Plaintiffs in this case.”
Pastoral Care for Victims?
Very troubling is the apparent lack of pastoral response from the Greek Orthodox church towards Katinas’ abuse victims. Page 28 of the petition states: “Holy Trinity, Denver Metropolis and GOAA have thus shown great interest in protecting their own reputations and those of predator priests but little in seeing to the care or cure of the psyches or souls of their victims.”
The petition states no counseling or pastoral care has been offered to these victims, despite their identity being known to the GOAA, in many cases long before the lawsuit was filed.
Katinas Refuses to Respond to Charges
A comment on page 3 of the petition says Katinas has been served and is in “default.” Default means he is a party before the court but hasn’t filed papers to say what his position is; he has not responded saying whether or not he denies the legal charges against him. Previous news reports stated Katinas had fled to Greece, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
Posted by Stan Shinn 
Date Published: 3/29/2008
Bishop Nikolai, one of nine diocesan bishops in North America, finds himself under fire from members of his diocese. One newspaper article reports:
Orthodox Reform 