By Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
February 17, 2011
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_17418399?nclick_check=1
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| Christopher Thomas Wenthe, 46, was accused in 2005. |
A priest who served at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in St. Paul has been charged with felony criminal sexual conduct involving a woman he counseled there from 2003 to 2005.
Christopher Thomas Wenthe, 46, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Ramsey County Jail, according to the county attorney and a sheriff's office spokesman.
The woman, who was in her early 20s at the time, told police Wenthe had counseled her about problems associated with her bulimia and sexual abuse she had suffered as a child, the criminal complaint said.
The meetings, including some in Wenthe's bedroom at the rectory, began to involve sexual contact, according to the complaint.
Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said in a written statement that the matter was reported to archdiocesan authorities in September 2005. The woman met with church representatives, was offered counseling and "was informed, as consistent with Archdiocesan policy, that she could report the contact to the police but chose not to do so."
"The Archdiocese sincerely regrets any pain or suffering that the woman may have endured and continues to offer her our assistance and care," McGrath said.
The criminal complaint gives this account of what happened:
The woman, identified only by her initials, came to the St. Paul police station in April 2010 to report the alleged abuse.
She said she met Wenthe when she took a class for adults converting to
Catholicism. Wenthe was a speaker for the course.
A spiritual adviser told the woman she should seek out a priest to be her "regular confessor" for spiritual comfort, guidance and consolation. The woman asked about Wenthe, and the adviser agreed he would be a good choice.
She subsequently went to confession with Wenthe at least four times, she told police. At times, he took her confession in a private sitting room adjacent to his bedroom in the church rectory.
The woman said, "I thought I was talking to God."
The first sexual contact occurred in his bedroom when the defendant lay on top of her and asked her to perform oral sex, she said.
"I remember pleading with him that we should stop, that degree of sin mattered and we should stop. He became incredibly frustrated with me. He made me feel like I had done this to him and that I was obligated to finish the job," she said, according to the complaint.
The two began to have sexual encounters about every two weeks. Meanwhile, she continued to attend Mass and receive communion from him, something she said "restored her faith in him as a priest."
At times, the defendant invited her to the sacristy after the service — an area of the church containing vestments and furnishings that is not accessible to the general public — and they had sex.
The woman told police her eating disorder worsened. "I was subconsciously using my eating behaviors as a way to punish myself for what I believed was my sin," she wrote in an October 2006 letter to a high-ranking church official, describing the relationship.
Police met with Wenthe and his attorney in August. He acknowledged the sexual contact and that it continued regularly for several months. He said he was sent for treatment by the archdiocese for a "generalized anxiety disorder."
"He stated he believed the entire time he was acting as a friend to (the woman) and not a priest," the complaint said.
State law forbids sexual contact between members of the clergy and those they are counseling.
The archdiocese sent Wenthe for a psychological assessment and treatment and he was returned to active ministry in August 2006 "with certain conditions and restrictions," McGrath said.
Wenthe was appointed parochial vicar of the St. Michael/St. Mary parish in Stillwater in October 2006. He was later appointed pastor of the Delano Catholic Community. The archdiocese's statement Thursday referred to him as Delano's "former" pastor.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.
Contact: egurnon@pioneerpress.com
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