Pedophile Priest Getting Salary, Health Insurance, Living Expenses Vs. Prison

By Mike Bryant
Legal Examiner
May 16, 2014

http://stcloud.legalexaminer.com/uncategorized/pedophile-priest-getting-salary-health-insurance-living-expenses-vs-prison/

The Child Victims Act has given survivors the chance to get justice. To come out into the light and recover for their losses. As the cases have come forward and discovery has uncovered information, the comparison to what has happened to the offending priests is so very troubling. These men belong in prison.

Instead , the evidence continues to mount that they have almost been rewarded. Rev. Gil Gustafson has been disclosed as a credibly accused priest. He was one of the few who were actually charged as he was sentenced to six months in jail and a $40 fine. He was incarcerated for about 41/2 months.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, after jail he went back to the church and has benefited as:

The church continued his priestly salary and health insurance, covered his living expenses and psychological treatment, and paid for his education and training, according to church records and a former archdiocese accountant. It has given him jobs in the chancery, helped him establish his own consulting business, and steered clients his way.

He lives in a bungalow in West St. Paul. The story goes on to tell the story of what happened to one of the children that he abused:

The years of abuse “mentally and physically destroyed him,” Herrity said. Classmates at Hill-Murray School mocked him after he went public with his abuse, his father said. He began a descent down a “path of destruction” that included drug abuse and promiscuity and ended in his death of complications from AIDS at age 28, in 1995.

The comparison is startling. Hopefully, for those who are still out there and suffering, the news will get out that they have until May 2016 to make sure they can find justice.

The names are now disclosed, however there are more lists that exist in Minnesota and there are many more names and information to find.

Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.