Rev. Stan Maslowski Tells a Story of Sex, Theft and Grace

By Sasha Aslanian
Minnesota Public Radio
March 12, 2014

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/03/11/priest-tells-story-of-sex-theft-and-grace

A Twin Cities priest whose sexual urges led him to steal church funds and serve time in the Hennepin County workhouse is calling on his archdiocese to face the clergy sexual abuse crisis more openly.

"I have often felt that the Archdiocese is more interested in its public image and avoiding lawsuits than the welfare of its people and priests," writes the Rev. Stan Maslowski, 77, in his new book, "How to Heal When the Church Hurts."

"The Catholic Church, in many places, has paid dearly for its cover-up of clergy misconduct."

Maslowski, now retired, self-published the 68-page volume this month, detailing his experiences and reflections on the clergy sex-abuse crisis. The priest describes how he embezzled from the church to pay for visits to strip clubs, massage parlors and adult bookstores. "I always rationalized I deserved the extra money for extra work I was doing," he wrote.

• The book: Read an excerpt from "How to Heal When the Church Hurts"

Maslowski says, and the archdiocese concurs, that no one has accused him of harming children or parishioners.

The archdiocese has blocked him from signing copies of his book at the parish where he used to live. A spokesman for the archdiocese said a book-signing on parish property would not be appropriate, as Maslowski is no longer in ministry.

“The Catholic Church, in many places, has paid dearly for its cover-up of clergy misconduct.”

Rev. Stanley Maslowski

The book tells the story of what Maslowski calls his redemption — turning his shame into grace. He said he hopes the church can achieve a similar turnaround. He thinks the church has trouble admitting that priests are sinners, too.

Maslowski has no such reluctance. In interviews with MPR News, he was candid about his past. He was a big tipper in strip clubs:

"Most guys maybe tip a dollar or something," he said. "When I was in the heyday of my addiction — and this is way back in the 1980s — if I liked some woman taking her clothes off, I might give her a hundred-dollar bill, you know. I was so crazy and so sick."

Maslowski's spending spree came crashing down in 1990. The bookkeeper at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Corcoran, where Maslowski was pastor, reported him to the archdiocese for embezzling. Maslowski pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $73,000 and was sentenced to 60 days in the workhouse.

Maslowski left ministry and went to work as a paralegal to pay his debts. He's still making payments to Catholic Mutual, the archdiocese's insurer.

After several years of therapy and meetings of Sexaholics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous, he asked then-Archbishop John Roach to let him return to ministry. A therapist agreed that Maslowski was ready, provided he not handle parish money or counsel women and that he continue his 12-step groups and be supervised by another priest. (Records show that the archdiocese's vicar general, the Rev. Kevin McDonough, sometimes neglected to inform parishes of those restrictions.) In recent years, Maslowski admitted, he'd developed a new addiction: He began attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings, as well.

• MPR News investigation: Betrayed by Silence

Roach assigned him to serve as associate pastor at St. Peter in North St. Paul in 1995. In an interview, Maslowski recalled the reaction he got from the parish:

"The pastor was asked by Archbishop Roach to read a letter to the people disclosing my situation about the theft of the money, and he did that," Maslowski said. "And surprisingly, at a couple of the masses, they gave me a standing ovation, clapping. So disclosure was not a bad thing at all, and there was disclosure."

But the disclosure did not extend to the reason Maslowski had stolen the money. Jennifer Haselberger, former chancellor for canonical affairs at the archdiocese, told MPR News that church leaders failed to give parishioners the whole story. "They weren't publicly acknowledging the sexual problem that was at the heart of the theft," she said.

Maslowski agreed. In an interview, he said he told colleagues and parishioners more of his story in individual conversations, and felt they accepted him for who he was.

"I believe there's there's more value in being open," he said, "and I feel sad there isn't enough of that on the archdiocesan level."

Maslowski said he wished church leaders had been more forthcoming about disclosing his sexual misbehavior. He also said church leaders should have listened to Haselberger's concerns about the archdiocese's handling of sex abuse cases.

"If she would have been treated with respect," he said, "if they would have been open to her concerns and acted on them when she expressed them, you wouldn't have had all those stories."

In fact, Maslowski was a particular subject of Haselberger's complaints. Before she resigned from her job in 2013, Haselberger wrote a memo to Archbishop John Nienstedt, briefing him on Maslowski's history. She told MPR News that Maslowski's file was long, interesting and "colorful."

“I said, 'Well, I'm not afraid of MPR. I'll call them.' And I did.”

Rev. Stanley Maslowski

Haselberger resigned in protest last April — citing the Maslowski case in her letter of resignation — and took her concerns to MPR News. Maslowski called the newsroom to offer his own story last fall, after MPR News broadcast its first story in the investigation.

"That particular day when I made that call, somebody from the archdiocese called me and said, 'We want you to move right away over to [the Leo C.] Byrne residence [for retired priests] because you're on MPR's list.' And I said, 'Well, I'm not afraid of MPR. I'll call them.' And I did," he said. "And then they weren't too happy I made that call."

Maslowski said the archdiocese told him last July he was being removed him from ministry because of what the archdiocese's Delegate for Safe Environment, the Rev. Dan Griffith, called "a change in the church's political climate." Maslowski has appealed to an archdiocesan board to let him resume saying funeral Masses and filling in at his former parishes.

He hopes his new book will open up a conversation about healing for the victims, the church and priests.

"A priest can have problems acting out sexually and he can recover from that," he said. "You're never cured, but you can recover if you keep working the program. And you can, in my opinion, you know, be a good priest. But I'm not talking now about those who have the problem of molesting children or some other person. That's another situation. But just the garden-valley sex addict like myself, I think, can recover and can experience redemption."