MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
Last update: April 17, 2006 – 8:41 PM
A former Minnesotan filed suit Monday against a Roman Catholic religious order and a former member who he says sexually molested him more than 20 years ago.
Robert Skjonsby, 40, of Port Orchard, Wash., said that it was only last year that he was able to admit to himself and his wife that he was abused from 1980 to 1983 while he was a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minn. The abuse occurred, he said, in a cabin in the Mille Lacs area and at a housing facility in the Twin Cities.
"For 25 years I've kept it inside," he said. "I never admitted that I was sexually abused. I never wanted to admit that I was sexually abused. ... It's caused me a lot of pain."