GALLUP, N.M. (AP) — Three men who filed the first sexual abuse lawsuits in the Navajo Nation court system against the Catholic church have recently settled their cases.
The Gallup Independent reports that the men will receive money as part of the settlement from the priest who is accused of sexually abusing them, the Diocese of Gallup, the Franciscan Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Albuquerque and another church entity.
The lawsuits allege that Charles Cichanowicz, a former Franciscan priest who once worked on the Navajo Nation, sexually abused them when they were teenagers in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Cichanowicz was assigned to parishes in Shiprock, N.M., and St. Michaels, Ariz.
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Information from: Gallup Independent, http://www.gallupindependent.com
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.