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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
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Priest Sued After Affair Makes Him a Dad

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - A priest who sat on the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese's Marriage Tribunal had an affair with a married woman and fathered her child, the cuckolded husband claims.

The lawsuit, filed anonymously in Cass County Circuit Court, says the diocese committed fraud by keeping silent about the Rev. Joseph Matt's sexual misconduct. Matt allegedly had an affair with the man's wife in 2004 and 2005.

The plaintiff says he learned last September that one of his sons was not his own, but he filed suit anonymously to protect the child's identity, the Kansas City Star reported.

Matt is currently assigned to St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Independence, Mo. The diocese told the Star that the plaintiff had reported the issue to diocesan officials in September 2010.

"At that time, Father Matt acknowledged the relationship and the results of a recent paternity test," the diocese's statement says. "In October 2010, Bishop [Robert] Finn removed Father Matt from his ministerial assignment at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Independence. A public statement to the parish community acknowledged the suspension as a consequence of the affair."

The diocese told the Star that it apologized to the plaintiff for the affair and offered "to pay for counseling for all members of the family, which the individual accepted."

The diocese and Matt are named as defendants.

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