Woman Sues Church For Abduction Of Husband

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 17

Woman Sues Church For Abduction Of Husband

(N XJ’.A.-Reuter— Copyright) MINEOLA (New York), March 7 A woman who secretly married a Catholic priest in 1950 has sued the t Roman Catholic Church for 2375,060 dollars' damages for allegedly abducting her husband and confining him to monasteries throughout the United States. The suit was filed yesterday in the State Supreme Court at Mineola on behalf of Mrs Alice Ryan, a 41-year-old mother of four children. Other defendants named were the Archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal Spellman, and the dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre, New York, Springfield and Worcester, in Massa-

chusetts, and San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, the Associated Press reported. Mrs Ryan claimed in the suit she married Father S. Ryan, aged 57, secretly in, Maryland in November, 1950. He left his post as assistant pastor in the parish of Glen Cove, New York, and worked as a real estate salesman in Fort Salonga, New York. On April 4, 1955, her husband, her suit alleged, was abducted from their home “with force and by means and aid of intoxicating beverages and liquors.” She charged: “The defendants have caused Ryan to be locked in monasteries with full knowledge of the marriage and the issue of the marriage” without his “approval, consent, free will and wish.”

Hie suit said her husband had returned in May, 1956, but within 12 hours “the defendants—except San Francisco, Los Angeles and Rockville pentre dioceses—again removed dr caused to be removed Father Ryan.” Mrs Ryan's Suit said the defendants would not tell her where he was end she had been unable to see him. She had also “been deprived of receiving proper and adequate support and has been a public charge.” The suit named the dioceses as defendants, because, the suit alleged, they or their members had played some part in the case.

The suit requested exemplary and punitive damages of 375,009 dollars for Mrs Ryan and 500,000 dollars for each of her children, aged 10, nine, eight and five.