Media Advisory: Diocese of New Ulm and Diocese of Duluth Named in Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

By Media Advisory
Jeff Anderson & Associates
February 12, 2014

http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/1745/Media-Advisory-Diocese-of-New-Ulm-and-Diocese-of-Duluth-named-in-Sexual-Abuse-Lawsuit.aspx

Diocese of Duluth, Diocese of New Ulm and Oblates of Mary Immaculate Named in Lawsuit  

New Ulm Diocese is the lone Minnesota Diocese refusing torelease its list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse 

What:  At a news conference Wednesday in Duluth, sexual abuse attorneys Mike Finnegan and Elin Lindstrom will: 

·         Announce the filing of a civil lawsuit on behalf of a man, Doe 30, who was sexually abused by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald. Doe 30 met Father Fitzgerald as a young parishioner at St. Thomas More, a parish in the Diocese of New Ulm, and Fitzgerald brought Doe 30 to St. Catherine’s in Squaw Lake, MN, a parish in the Diocese of Duluth, where he sexually abused Doe 30. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate are also named in the lawsuit which claims that all three defendants should have known that Fitzgerald was a risk to children and failed to protect Doe 30.

·         Request the Diocese of New Ulm release their list of 12 priests with credible allegations of child sexual abuse and request that the Diocese of Duluth release documents pertaining to the list of 17 priests they revealed on December 31, 2013.

·         Discuss Fitzgerald’s sordid history throughout the Midwest. Fitzgerald allegedly abused children on three reservations in Minnesota and South Dakota including orphaned children on the Lake Traverse Reservation as part of the Sisseton, South Dakota Indian Mission. Fitzgerald was named as a priest with credible allegations of sexual abuse on the lists released by both the Diocese of Crookston and the Diocese of Duluth.