Criticized in Sermon, Parishioner Sues
Criticized by a parishioner in private telephone messages, a Catholic priest in suburban Chicago might have been best-advised to turn the other cheek. Instead, he fired back from the pulpit, allegedly saying he’d checked beforehand with a lawyer who’d approved his comments.
After parishioners arrived at mass at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Crystal Lake, Ill., on Sunday, Sept. 30, Father Luis Alfredo Rios played recordings of two phone messages he’d recently received from parishioner Angel Llavona that complained about his sermons. Although the priest apparently didn’t identify Llavona by name, he criticized Llavona’s work on the church Sunday school program in front of the entire congregation, according to the Arlington Heights, Ill., Daily Herald and the complaint Llavona filed the next day in McHenry County Circuit Court.
“What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?” Rios allegedly asked parishioners.
Angered by the sermon, which he says humiliated him and damaged his professional reputation as a teacher at Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Llavona sued for defamation per se, invasion of privacy and breach of fiduciary duty, among other causes of action. His complaint names as defendants Rios, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford and the priest’s supervisor, Monsignor Daniel Hermes.
A defamation case brought over a priest’s accusations made from the pulpit is very unusual, says Allen Shoenberger, a law professor at Loyola University in Chicago. “I’ve never heard of this happening,” he tells the Chicago Tribune.
(Hat tip: On Point legal news blog, which provided the complaint.)
