Pedophile's Transfer Angered Priest

By Dan Nienaber
Mankato Free Press
August 4, 2014

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/x864260706/Pedophiles-transfer-angered-priest

A former Diocese of New Ulm priest told attorneys he was so angry when he learned a known pedophile priest from Ireland had been sent to Minnesota that he immediately kicked the priest out of a chemical dependency program in Willmar.

The Rev. Francis Garvey was being interviewed by Michael Finnegan, an attorney with the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm, for a deposition for two lawsuits that have been filed in Brown County. One of the lawsuits accuses the Rev. Francis Markey, who died in 2012 in Ireland while awaiting trial for raping a 15-year-old boy in 1968, of sexually assaulting a Henderson boy while temporarily serving at a church there in 1982.

Markey was serving at churches in the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm while going through a chemical dependency program Garvey oversaw at the former Regional Treatment Center in Willmar, Garvey said during the deposition. Markey and several other priests had been sent to the program from the Servant of the Paraclete facility in New Mexico, where priests were sent to be treated for pedophilia.

Garvey, who was 81 at the time of the January deposition, said Markey was one of about 10 priests he had removed from the program after they were accused of molesting someone in Minnesota. He also told Finnegan officials with the Servant of the Paraclete usually told him about the priests being sent to Willmar who had been treated for pedophilia, but they hadn't told him about Markey's background.

"I confronted them because (Markey) got into trouble at the treatment center," Garvey said. "I immediately confronted them, 'How come I didn't know? You can't come over from England.' Their response was that they had just found out themselves. I was very upset with them. That was a student (Markey) I removed within two hours from my program once I found out about his behavior."

Contact: dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com