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	Fomer Area Priest Appears in Court on Sex Charge The Post-Bulletin February 18, 2011 http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1445418 The attorney for a Minnesota Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct with a woman he was counseling says it was a consensual relationship. The Rev. Christopher Wenthe, 46, of Delano appeared in Ramsey County court Friday. The judge ordered Wenthe to have no contact with the alleged victim. Wenthe was charged Thursday with third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The complaint says Wenthe had sex with the woman multiple times from 2003 to 2005 while he was a priest at Nativity Catholic Church in St. Paul. After the hearing, Wenthe's attorney Paul Engh called it "a consensual relationship." The Star Tribune reports Engh said Wenthe will resign his position with the Delano Catholic Community but doesn't plan to resign from the priesthood. Wenthe formerly served at the Church of St. Michael in Pine Island and St. Paul's Catholic Church in Zumbrota. Wenthe was newly ordained and second in charge at Nativity Church in St. Paul when the alleged crime occurred, between Nov. 1, 2003, and Feb. 28, 2005. He left Nativity parish in June 2005, then held positions in Zumbrota, Pine Island and Stillwater before moving to Delano. Dennis McGrath, communications director of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told the Star Tribune that the archdiocese learned of "the matter" in September 2005. The woman was offered counseling and therapy, he said, adding that she was told she could go to police "but chose not to do so (then)." Court documents show that the woman reported the incidents to St. Paul police in April 2010. The documents contain numerous excerpts from a letter dated Oct. 2, 2006, that she wrote to "a high-ranking member" of the archdiocese about the abuse. The archdiocese's statement said Wenthe underwent a psychological evaluation and treatment and, in August 2006, was "allowed to return to active ministry with certain conditions and restrictions." "No complaints or incidents have been made over the past five years of his ministry," the statement said. The woman, now 29, said the abuse happened between Nov. 1, 2003, and Feb. 28, 2005. She said she had been sexually abused as a child and suffered from bulimia. She said she converted to Catholicism in 2003 and met Wenthe when he spoke at her initiation class at Nativity. He also came to a picnic honoring graduates of the class and, soon after, became her regular confessor. The woman said her first sexual contact with Wenthe happened after he invited her to his apartment after she had attended her first session with a counselor to begin dealing with the childhood sexual abuse and eating disorder. Wenthe's alleged behavior fell into a pattern of remorse, then re-engagement, the complaint said. He had sexual contact with the woman about every two weeks. Police first talked to Wenthe in August 2010, the complaint said. He acknowledged his sexual relationship with the woman. He said the archdiocese had confronted him about his "inappropriate relationship with her" and sent him to treatment for a "generalized anxiety disorder." "The Archdiocese sincerely regrets any pain or suffering that the woman may have endured and continues to offer her our assistance and care," the archdiocese's statement said.
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