Al BehmCHARLOTTE — A New York man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was exploited and sexually abused as a youth in North Carolina and elsewhere by former lay missionary Al Behm, who was assigned by his religious community to work in western North Carolina more than 40 years ago.
The civil suit filed July 6 in Mecklenburg County Superior Court names as defendants Behm and his former religious community, the Ohio-based Glenmary Home Missioners, as well as the Diocese of Charlotte.
The lawsuit alleges the misconduct began in the 1970s when the claimant was a minor living in Connecticut and continued into his college years at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Glenmary assigned Behm to work as campus chaplain there from 1980 to 1984. The suit contends Glenmary and the diocese were negligent in supervising Behm.
At the time of the alleged abuse, the Glenmary Home Missioners staffed communities in far western North Carolina where there were few Catholics, including Sylva. Glenmary clergy and missionaries running the Sylva parish also maintained a presence on the nearby WCU campus. Behm was not an ordained clergy member but worked there as a missionary, or brother, on behalf of the religious community until 1984 when Glenmary assigned him to work in another state.
Current leaders of the Charlotte diocese said Friday they had no prior knowledge of this abuse allegation, and are reviewing the suit and praying for the claimant.
In a statement, the diocese said its historical review of clergy personnel and other files in 2019 “found no record of any allegations of child sexual abuse by Al Behm during his time in North Carolina 40 years ago.”
Glenmary President Father Dan Dorsey said in a July 9 statement, “I cannot comment on active lawsuits, but I can say that at times in the past Glenmary has failed to protect minors and vulnerable adults. Moreover, our response to victims has often been inadequate. On behalf of Glenmary I deeply regret these failures. Glenmary is committed to healing and justice for all involved.”
In October 2019, Glenmary publicly named Behm on its list of credibly accused missioners for an allegation of abuse it said was reported to have occurred outside North Carolina. That list prompted the Diocese of Charlotte to include Behm on the diocese’s accountability website, on a list of those who once served here and later were accused of abuse elsewhere.
“The Charlotte diocese has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and we continue to encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to seek help and report to authorities,” the diocese’s statement said.
According to information provided by Glenmary, Behm joined the order as a lay missionary in 1960 and served in nine dioceses before leaving the society in 1993.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit claiming it is timely under North Carolina’s 2019 SAFE Child Act, which provides for a two-year window to bring certain civil claims of child sexual abuse that had been precluded by the state’s statute of limitations.
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor
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Full statement from the Diocese of Charlotte:
The Diocese of Charlotte’s historical file review found no record of any allegations of child sexual abuse by Al Behm during his time in North Carolina 40 years ago.
Behm was a lay missionary whose supervising religious order, the Ohio-based Glenmary Home Missioners, served sparsely populated areas of far western North Carolina. The order assigned Behm to work at Western Carolina University in 1980. They assigned him to ministry outside of North Carolina in 1984, and Behm left the Glenmary order in 1993.
In October 2019, Behm was publicly named on Glenmary’s list of members accused of abuse, for an allegation the order said was reported to have occurred in Kentucky in the 1970s. Glenmary’s list prompted the Diocese of Charlotte to include Behm’s name on our accountability website, on a list of those who served here and were later accused of abuse elsewhere.
The Charlotte diocese has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and we continue to encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to seek help and report to authorities.