Lawsuit Claims Sexual Abuse by Member of Diocese of Duluth

Northlands News Center
February 12, 2014

http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/Lawsuit-claims-sexual-abuse-by-member-of-Diocese-of-Duluth--245290221.html

[with video]

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com)-- A lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Ramsay County against the Diocese of Duluth on behalf of a man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest who had worked in the Diocese for more than two decades.

The lawsuit claims the man was the victim of repeated sexual abuse in 1976 when he was 13 years old and serving as an altar boy.

The claim says he was abused by Father Vincent Fitzgerald who has since died.

The abuse is alleged to have started at St Thomas More, a parish in the Diocese of New Ulm, which is also named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims the sexual abuse continued when Father Fitzgerald took the boy to St Catherine's Church in Squaw Lake, which is in the Diocese of Duluth.

It is alleged that Fitzgerald sexually abused four children before his death in 2008.

"We believe that his trail of victims and the horror that he inflicted on people is alive and that there are many people out there that are hurt by this man," said Mike Finnegan with Jeff Anderson and Associates law firm.

Attorney Mike Finnegan requested he be provided with all documents relating to Father Fitzgerald from the Diocese of Duluth.

Finnegan has also asked the Diocese of New Ulm to release its list of twelve priests with credible allegations of child sexual abuse.

Written and posted to the web by Raeanna Marnati

Contact: rmarnati@kbjr.com