84-year-old woman sues Springfield Catholic diocese over groping allegations against Chicopee priest

SPRINGFIELD A Chicopee woman is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield and a Franciscan friars order over allegations her parish priest grabbed her buttocks during a Mass in 2019.

According to a lawsuit filed in Hampden Superior Court by Irene Collins, 84, Friar Paul Miskiewicz first touched her buttocks when the two were standing in the sacristy of Chicopees St. Stanislaus Church where she was a longtime congregant and secular minister.

As the Plaintiff was looking at the books in the sacristy, Father Miskiewicz approached the Plaintiff from behind and touched her left buttock, reads the lawsuit filed by Springfield attorney Raipher D. Pellegrino. When Father Miskiewicz was standing behind the Plaintiff with his hand on her left buttock she felt his robe on the back of her legs.