HANNIBAL, Mo. -- St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary had gone fairly unnoticed in this Mississippi River town until a Florida bishop admitted he sexually abused a student at the seminary a quarter of a century ago.

Shaken by the news, the 27-student St. Thomas seminary now looks for healing.

"Personally, this hurts," the Rev. Marion Makarewicz, St. Thomas' rector since 1996, told the Hannibal Courier-Post. "Any time you hear stories about misconduct by clergy it hurts very much. I do feel empathy for any victim, and I understand that."

On Friday, the Rev. Anthony J. O'Connell resigned as bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., publicly acknowledging he molested Christopher Dixon 25 years ago when Dixon was a teen at St. Thomas. Makarewicz attended St. Thomas about the same time as Dixon.

Dixon, now 40 and living in St. Louis, said he and O'Connell touched inappropriately in bed after he sought out O'Connell for counseling.

The nation's latest and biggest sex-abuse scandal involving priests began in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law admitted that a former priest molested children for years but was shuttled between parishes anyway. More than 130 people have come forward to say the defrocked priest, John Geoghan, abused them.

Since the Boston case gained national attention in January, dozens of priests out of more than 47,000 nationwide have been suspended or forced to resign, and priests' names have been turned over to prosecutors.

O'Connell's admission was made public Friday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reported that the Jefferson City Diocese paid Dixon $125,000 in a 1996 settlement, under which he promised not to pursue further claims against the diocese, O'Connell and two other priests. The diocese did not admit any wrongdoing.

Bracing for fallout

Even before revelations of O'Connell's misconduct at St. Thomas hit newsstands Friday, Makarewicz said the seminary was bracing for the fallout. On Thursday, he said, Jefferson City Diocese Bishop John Gaydos told him the matter would make news Friday and "adversely affect the reputation" of the seminary.

By Thursday evening, Makarewicz was working the phones, calling parents to "prepare them for something that would be very sad and trying for all of us."