Archdiocese Receives Approval of Court to Proceed with Disclosure

Date:
Monday, December 2, 2013
Source:
Jim Accurso


The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful for the approval of Ramsey County court to release information relating to priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in our archdiocese. We anticipate releasing this information on Thursday, December 5 on a new page of our web site and in our archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit.

Included in this disclosure will be the following information: the cleric’s name; year of birth; age; year of ordination; year of death (if deceased); prior assignments; current status (permanently removed from ministry, laicized, deceased, etc.); city and state where they presently reside. The information to be released is mostly related to reported incidents that occurred between the mid- 1950’s and 1980’s. Most of the men whose names will be released have been previously identified in media reports. All of these men who will be identified have been permanently removed from ministry or are deceased.

These disclosures are not intended to be final. A comprehensive review of clergy files is ongoing presently and the list will be updated regularly as additional announcements are made in the future. This new level of disclosure is part of a comprehensive and cohesive set of actions we have been taking this fall to address the issues associated with clergy sexual misconduct in our archdiocese. These disclosure practices may evolve in the future as we progress with our disclosure, including recommendations that may be made by the independent task force or through the review of our clergy files by an outside firm.

Our goals are to protect the young and vulnerable, care for victims of abuse, and restore trust among the laity, as well as our clergy who are serving honorably. Those who have been victimized by these horrible crimes have been deeply hurt. It is our hope that disclosure of these names can assist victims in their healing process. Any sexual abuse of minors by clergy members cannot and will not be tolerated. As we have previously stated, anyone having knowledge of clergy sexual misconduct should immediately call law enforcement and is encouraged to notify the archdiocese.

http://www.archspm.org/news-events/news-detail.php?intResourceID=10964

Archdiocesan officials have fought in the past to keep the list secret, but changed their position in response to an MPR News investigation that found that church leaders protected a priest who admitted to sexually abusing boys on an American Indian reservation and did not disclose his abuse to the police or the public. Archbishop John Nienstedt announced on Nov. 11 that he would begin releasing the names of priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse against them in November if he obtained a judge's permission.

...

The battle over the list began in 2004, when the archdiocese told researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that it knew of 33 priests accused of sexually abusing children. The archdiocese did not provide the names of the priests. Researchers used the information from the archdiocese and other dioceses around the country to study the prevalence of clergy sexual abuse.

In 2009, victims' attorneys Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan asked a judge to order that the names of the 33 priests be released. Ramsey County Judge Gregg Johnson ordered the archdiocese to provide the information to the attorneys as part of a specific lawsuit but immediately placed the list under seal. It has remained under seal since then, which means it could not be released to the public -- and victims' attorneys cannot reveal its contents -- without a judge's order to unseal it.