MINNESOTA
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY DAVID HAWLEY
Pioneer Press
A lawsuit has been filed against the Franciscan Sisters of Rochester, Minn., alleging that the order concealed instances of child sexual abuse by one of its nuns.
St. Paul attorney Jeffrey R. Anderson, who has represented numerous victims of alleged abuse by Catholic clergy, filed the civil action last week in Olmstead County on behalf of a California woman, Christine Bertrand.
On Tuesday, Bertrand, 50, and her younger sister, Karen Britten, 48, of Chicago, appeared at news conferences in Rochester and St. Paul. They claim they were sexually abused more than 40 years ago when they were children attending a parochial school in Chicago and taking private piano lessons from Franciscan Sister Benen Kent.
A third woman at the news conference, who declined to be identified, also claimed she was abused by Kent. All said the incidents occurred between 1962 and 1965 while they were students at Chicago's St. Juliana's Parish School and, in one instance, at a Minnesota retreat.
Posted by kshaw at June 1, 2005 06:34 AM