By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Bishop Larry Silva is satisfied with reaching a settlement in a legal dispute between the Diocese of Honolulu and Elton Killion, a 26-year-old man who claimed to have been sexually abused by Capuchin Franciscan Father Andrew Mannetta between 1997 and 2002 when the priest was in Hawaii.

In the settlement, which came on Jan. 17, the evening before the case was set to go to trial in Hawaii Circuit Court, the diocese will pay Killion $375,000. The settlement was “resolved without admission of liability” on part of the diocese.

“We are pleased that an opportunity to resolve this matter presented itself,” wrote Bishop Silva in a written statement, Jan. 18. “The legal process is long and painful. Drawing this dispute out in a protracted court battle would not be in the best interests of the plaintiff, the church or Andy Mannetta.”

“By the terms of the agreement, a disputed claim is resolved without admission of liability and without the hardships, disruptions and acrimony of trial,” he said.

Killion sued Mannetta and his Capuchin Province of St. Mary in New York in 2003. The Diocese of Honolulu was named party in the suit about a year ago.

Killion and the Province of St. Mary have reached a settlement, the terms of which are being kept confidential. The suit against Mannetta has been dropped because he has no assets.

“Today’s resolution dismisses the remainder of the plaintiff’s claims and enables us to put this matter behind us and to continue the church’s mission in Hawaii,” the bishop said.

The Capuchin Franciscans removed Father Mannetta from public ministry in 2002 when they ordered him back to New York after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.

Mannetta is no longer with the religious community and is in the process of being laicized, according to Capuchin Franciscan Father Michael Banks, provincial minister of the Capuchin Province of St. Mary.

Laicization is the process by which the Vatican relieves a bishop, priest or deacon from the obligations of holy orders and ministry and returns him to the status of lay person.

Mannetta worked in the Capuchin vice-province of Star of the Sea in Guam before coming to Hawaii in 1993 to be associate pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish in Aiea.

He served as pastor of the Aiea parish from 1994 to 1997, after which he remained in Hawaii and began the full-time Capuchin Preaching Ministry, giving parish missions and talks at ecumenical functions. His order called him back to New York in 2002.