*This article includes claims of child rape. Reader discretion is advised.*
QUEENSTOWN, Md.- A local woman has sued Catholic church clergymembers after coming forward with rape accusations dating back to 1960.
Attorneys for 74-year-old Joyce Harper are suing the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, under the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023 for alleged childhood sexual abuse as a 10 year old in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Oblates are lay people connected with a religious order or institution and living according to its regulations.
Harper says Priest George A. Mahoney was the pastor at Mary Our Mother of Sorrows and St. Peter the Apostle Churches in Centerville and Queenstown from 1956 to 1969.
According to Harper, when she was 10 years old, one Sunday after Mass, Mahoney asked four 10-year-old girls to help him count the Sunday offering money. Harper claims Mahoney forced two of the girls to perform oral sex, and told Mahoney after: “If you tell anyone about this you will go to hell.”
Harper's attorneys say she reported Mahoney to the Diocese of Wilmington, who then covered up her accusations. Harper's attorneys say under the Delaware Child Victims Act of 2007, the Oblates were sued at least 41 times. A list of 12 known pedophile priests was admitted by the Oblates at that time and they say Mahoney, who died in 1971, is not on that list.
She seeks monetary damages for life long personal injuries.
CoastTV has reached out to the Oblates for a comment and have not heard back. This article will be updated accordingly.