BishopAccountability.org
	A Second Prelate Now Wants Thousands from Alleged Victim By Kristine Ward NSAC December 3, 2010 http://www.nsacoalition.org/ That brings the total sought by church staffers to $132,000 Winona’s bishop says he’s owed $68,000 by Twin Cities man (And last week, Twin Cities prelate separately sought $64,000) Four national groups blast Catholic officials for “intimidating legal maneuver” (Nienstedt “postpones” his maneuver but SNAP says it should be “dropped for good”) For the second time in a week, a Minnesota Catholic bishop has filed a legal motion seeking to force an alleged victim of a predator priest to pay thousands to the church in defense costs. Yesterday, leaders of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, learned of the move by Winona Bishop John Quinn. It seeks $68,000 and follows on the heels of a similar request last week by Minneapolis-St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt for $64,000. SNAP and three other national organizations are blasting both prelates. They are BishopAccountability.org, a Boston-based research and archival group, and two Catholic reform organizations: the Chicago-based Call To Action and the Dayton-based National Survivors Advocacy Coalition. The move has been described by one Catholic official as “a routine legal maneuver.” “In fact, it is a hardball tactic that is rarely used and always reprehensible,” said Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org “It is morally unjust to pay defense lawyers with church funds only to have the lawyers take actions that perpetuate secrecy about alleged child sex crimes,” said Jim FitzGerald, executive director of Call To Action. “We hope this is not a disturbing new trend among bishops,” said Kris Ward of NSAC. “If so, we strongly urge them to head back to the drawing board. Punishing victims with punitive money grabs cannot be the answer to this largest crisis in the Church’s history in 500 years.” Both bishops are defendants in a civil lawsuit brought by a Twin Cities man, Jim Kennan, who says he was repeatedly molested as a child by Fr. Thomas Adamson, who worked in both dioceses. (On Tuesday, Nienstedt announced he was postponing his move to get money. But later that same day, the alleged victim’s attorney received formal court papers from the Winona diocese making the same financial demand.) Last month, a judge tossed out the case out on the statute of limitations. And late last week, Nienstedt formally asked the same judge to make the alleged victim pay $64,000 to the archdiocese for its legal costs. On top of that, Quinn is seeking an additional $68,000 for his diocese. Victims decry the highly unusual tactic, calling it “mean-spirited” and “designed to intimidate others.” The case accuses Minnesota’s most prolific predator priest, Fr. Thomas Paul Adamson, of molesting a boy, Jim Keenan, in the 1980s at Risen Savior parish in Apple Valley. (Adamson faces at least dozen accusers, most of whom have sued and settled.) According to the lawsuit, church officials were told as early as 1963 about Adamson’s crimes. Yet they kept quietly transferring him from parish to parish without warning church members. The civil case, filed in 2006, charges top church staff with fraud and seeks to publicly expose the names of other child molesting archdiocesan clerics. In October, Judge Gregg Johnson sided with the church officials in October and tossed out the case. The victim is now appealing Johnson’s decision. At 2:30 today in Winona, two SNAP members plan to hold a brief news conference outside the diocesan headquarters about the move. The letters by the four groups, sent today by fax and e mail, are below: For more info: Kristine Ward 937-272-0308 KristineWard@hotmail.com David Clohessy 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
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