A fourth former student at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas has filed a lawsuit alleging he was abused by priests when he was a student there.

The plaintiff, a Dallas lawyer in his 50s, filed the lawsuit this month against the school and the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, among others, saying he was sexually abused in the early 1980s by two Jesuit Prep priests.

The priests named in the suit are the Rev. Peter Callery, a teacher and wrestling coach, and the late Rev. Patrick Koch, a former president of the school.

The lawsuit, filed under the pseudonym Richard Roe, says he was molested by Koch during a confession and by Callery in a hotel room when the school wrestling team traveled to a match.

The man, who asked not to be identified, told The Dallas Morning News in an interview that he felt compelled to step forward when other former Jesuit Prep students filed lawsuits this year alleging sexual abuse by priests there.

“With everything that had gone on in the church, I really started to feel my silence was making me complicit in the cover-up of sex abuse,” he said. “There has never been an honest resolution that solved the problem.”

Callery did not return phone or email messages seeking comment about the allegation. The director of Manresa could not be reached for comment.Koch died in 2006 at age 78. Callery lives in Convent, La., at Manresa House of Retreats, on the banks of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He’s listed as an associate director of Manresa on the retreat’s website.

Therese Meyerhoff, a spokeswoman for the Jesuits of the U.S. Central and Southern Province, declined to comment about the specific allegations.

“I want to be clear that the province has never before received an allegation against Fr. Peter Callery,” she said in an email. “However, in accordance with province policies, Fr. Callery will not engage in public ministry until this matter is resolved.”

A Jesuit Prep spokesman also declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. The Catholic Diocese of Dallas said it was reviewing the suit.

The lawsuit says Callery “still has access to young boys” through his work at a Jesuit retreat in Louisiana. Manresa’s website, however, says retreat activities “are conducted for men only” and attendees must be 18. Meyerhoff said the retreat is offered to adults.

But the website for Jesuit High School in New Orleans says sophomores attend Manresa for a silent retreat. The retreat’s Fall 2018 newsletter mentioned the school and another, St. Charles High School, attended a day of prayer there.

Meyerhoff said Monday that her prior comment about Manresa serving only adults was based on the retreat center’s website.” But as I now understand, that information is intended for individuals interested in a retreat,” Meyerhoff said. “Jesuit High School does send student groups for retreats. These groups are always accompanied by chaperones.”

Koch was named in January as “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children by both the Dallas and Corpus Christi dioceses. He never faced criminal charges in the sex scandal and is not included in a similar list released by the Jesuits in December. Callery didn’t appear on either list.

Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns has said previously that a priest’s inclusion on the list means “that we would believe it is true that an abuse has taken place.”

In the latest lawsuit filed against Jesuit Prep, the victim says the abuse contributed to his struggles with severe depression, alcoholism, shame and self-doubt, as well as a failed marriage. The man said he sought treatment for his alcoholism and is in recovery.

He joined a lawsuit filed by another former Jesuit Prep student, Mike Pedevilla, who told The News he was also molested by Koch.

A third student said in a lawsuit filed last month that Koch sexually assaulted him in a windowless closet when he was given in-school suspension for leaving campus without permission.

Another lawsuit accused former Jesuit priest Donald Dickerson of sexually abusing a student in the late 1970s. Dickerson was removed from the Jesuit order in 1986 and died in 2018. Dickerson was named on a credibly accused list.

New allegations

Callery taught middle school and high school boys for 36 years in Houston, New Orleans, Tampa and Dallas, the lawsuit says. He coached sports for 27 years.

The plaintiff in the most recent lawsuit was small for a high school freshman, like Pedevilla, when he attended Jesuit, the lawsuit says. But he was also athletic, so he joined the school wrestling team, coached by Callery.

At times, the man said, Callery was extremely complimentary. But the priest would also get angry and yell and scream at him until his face was red, the man said.

“After one tournament, he was so irate at me after I lost a match,” the man said, “he pulled me into a side room and just went after me. I was just crying and crying and crying, and then he would build me up.”

The man’s attorneys, Charla Aldous and Brent Walker, say they believe Callery was grooming their client for sexual abuse so he would be dependent on the priest and need his approval.

When the boy was 15, he qualified for a wrestling championship in El Paso, the lawsuit says, Callery told him they would share a hotel room. While at the hotel, he and a friend played video games in the lounge of the bar, something the lawsuit says that Callery would later hold over his head because it was against school policy to go into a bar.

The teen lost his matches and didn’t advance in the tournament.

“He was disappointed,” the lawsuit says. “But the disappointment from losing was nothing compared to the horror of what Callery did.”