A lawsuit launched in March has accused Fr. Thomas Rosica, the national director of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of sexually assaulting a young priest in the lead up to event.

It has led to Rosica’s faculties for priestly ministry being withdrawn. A faculty is authorization by an ecclesial authority, usually a bishop, that enables a priest to teach, sanctify or govern for the good of the Church. It is withdrawn pending the outcome of the process.

The suit, according to the online news agency The Pillar, which broke the news Aug. 28, alleges Rosica developed a mentoring relationship with the plaintiff, a newly ordained Canadian priest, in the 1990s. The priest was in graduate studies at the time, The Pillar reports. The priest was also invited to assist Rosica in preparing for World Youth Day, which drew thousands of young Catholics to Toronto in the summer of 2002.

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Rosica is alleged to have developed a close relationship with the unnamed young priest, one of “authority and trust,” the lawsuit alleges. This “allowed Rosica an opportunity to be alone with the plaintiff and to exert control over him, prey upon him and sexually abuse him.”

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Rosica has denied any improper conduct and has urged a judge to dismiss the lawsuit so that the allegations can play out in a canonical court. He has argued that the Ontario court has no jurisdiction in this dispute and that he and the plaintiff, as ordained priests and the alleged assaults occurring while “engaged in duties on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church,” means an ecclesiastical court should be where the matter is heard.

The suit also alleges the Congregation of St. Basil, Rosica’s religious order, failed to supervise Rosica. It alleged the order knew of similar allegations with young males against Rosica and “took steps to attempt to cover-up the behaviour.”

The allegations have yet to be proven in a court of law.

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Rosica’s career within the Catholic Church took off following WYD 2002. He went on to found and run Salt+Light Television in 2003 and was appointed a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communication in 2009. In 2013 he was appointed a Vatican spokesman ahead of the conclave that elected Pope Francis and was a media advisor at two Synods of Bishops, in 2008 and 2018.

Rosica would run into trouble in 2019 however, when he resigned his position at Salt+Light following serial plagiarism allegations in his published works.