Minn. Diocese Releases List of Accused Clergy

Seattle PI
January 3, 2014

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Minn-diocese-releases-list-of-accused-clergy-5112306.php

The Diocese of St. Cloud joined other Roman Catholic dioceses around Minnesota Friday in releasing lists of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

The St. Cloud diocese released a list of 33 names. Twenty-one people on the list are dead.

On Thursday, a man who says he was sexually abused by a priest in the mid-1960s held a news conference with his attorneys to demand the list's release.

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"We've been working on this for a couple of weeks, so the lawsuit that was filed was done in the middle of compiling this information," Marrin said.

The list has seven more names on it than the man and his attorneys demanded.

"An investigation was done in each case, in some instances by the civil authorities and in some instances by the church authorities," Marrin said.

In 2003, the St. Cloud diocese said there were 26 priests who had been accused of sexually molesting minors, but they had remained unnamed.

Bishop Donald Kettler said in a statement Friday that when he became bishop of the St. Cloud diocese in November, he reviewed files of claims of sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the diocese.

"I am struck by the courage and strength of the victims of abuse who have come forward. And I am impressed with the pastoral responses of my predecessors. So in mid-December, I decided to release the names of those clergy," Kettler said.

Jeff Anderson, one of the attorneys for the man who pressed for the list's release, called it "a very good first step."

"We brought disclosure and exposure of long-kept secrets. However there is still a lot to be disclosed, and we're looking forward to either getting them to do it voluntarily or requiring the courts to do it," Anderson said.

Anderson has sued other dioceses in the state. Lists of names were released in December by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Winona and Duluth dioceses, and by St. John's Abbey.