Lawsuit accuses Chicago priest of molesting 13-year-old boy

March 24, 2006

Rev. Chester Przybylo has been accused in a civil law suit of molesting a 13-year-old boy almost 20 years ago, when he was serving at Holy Martyrs parish in Chicago.

The plaintiff said the abuse took place in the apartment of a friend of Rev. Przybylo and the rectory of Five Holy Martyrs, and continued for more than a year. Rev. Przybylo supposedly threatened to have the plaintiff's mother, a Polish immigrant, deported if he resisted.

The plaintiff says that he told a bishop and another pastor about the abuse, but he said, "I was yelled at and told to go to confession as if I sinned."

Rev. Chester Przybylo is currently the pastor at Shrine of Christ the King church in western Chicago, a conservative Catholic congregation which is not officially recognized by the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Rev. Przybylo has denied the allegations.