A 55-year-old Worcester County man sued a Roman Catholic monastery in Harvard Tuesday, alleging that a monk sexually assaulted him as a child and that other abbey staff negligently withheld crucial information from him years later.
The lawsuit, filed in Worcester County Superior Court, lists St. Benedict Abbey as a defendant, its abbot, Francis Xavier Connelly, and the Swiss-American Benedictine Congregation.
The plaintiff, who was not identified, told reporters Wednesday that he was abused the 1970s by Joseph Martin, a brother of the Benedictine Order who died in 2015. Martin admitted to the abuse in 2013, the man said, but the abbey did not inform him or pay for him to receive treatment.
“What happened to me was wrong, and I need to bring this to the attention of everybody so that no one else gets hurt,’’ said the man, who spoke at a press conference and was only identified as John Doe.
Neither Connelly, the abbey, nor its congregation responded to calls and e-mails requesting comment.
The man said the alleged abuse occurred for four to six months when he was between the ages of 10 and 14. He and a friend often stayed at the abbey on weekends, he said.
“It was a fun place to be as a little kid,’’ he said. “At the time, I didn’t know that I had this man sort of preying on me, and I can’t actually explain why he chose me and why he did what he did.’’
According to the lawsuit, Martin repeatedly abused and raped the youth. Martin would come into the room where the boy slept and take him to his own room, the suit states.
Years later, the plaintiff began to vividly remember what happened to him; he spoke to others about the alleged abuse and it sparked a police investigation in 2013, the lawsuit says.
According to the police report, a detective spoke to the accused monk, who admitted to touching the boy without his consent. At the time, Martin was living in a rehabilitation and nursing center in Worcester and had been diagnosed with dementia, Harvard police Detective Daniele Fortunato wrote in the report.
Last year, the man said, he reached out for help to Connelly, now the head of the monastery. Connelly initially agreed to help pay for his medical expenses, which included intensive therapy and in-patient hospital care, according to the suit. But he and the abbey later reversed course after learning how much it would cost, the plaintiff said.
“He promised to help me, and then kind of yanked the rug out from underneath me,’’ he said.
The lawsuit alleges that the abbot, abbey, and congregation inflicted emotional distress on the man and acted negligently by keeping information from him. It also charges that the defendants are vicariously liable for Martin’s alleged misconduct.
The suit demands a jury trial. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Boston-based Carmen Durso, said he had been in talks with the abbey’s lawyers, but they were not initially open to resolving the case with a settlement.
“We really haven’t been left with many choices,’’ Durso said, adding that the abbey has tried to distance itself from Martin.
J.D. Capelouto can be reached at jd.capelouto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jdcapelouto.
