Twin Cities priest's parishes had suspicions, but archdiocese seemingly did little

By Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
September 09, 2014

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_26509194/twin-cities-priests-parishes-had-suspicions-but-archdiocese

The Rev. Larry R. Johnson

David Swinarski was 12 when his parish priest in Red Wing, Minn., invited him to dinner and a performance of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in Minneapolis.

The Rev. Larry R. Johnson had met the Swinarski family shortly after arriving at St. Joseph parish in July 1992, and David's parents were suspicious almost immediately about the attention Johnson showed him.

Dee Swinarski "felt this request carried inappropriate sexual overtones," according to a lawsuit.

She reported her concerns to church deacon and custodian Jerry Elsen. Elsen passed that information to William Fallon, then chancellor for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

A spokesman for the archdiocese said officials there had never received a report of sexual abuse of a child by Johnson and never investigated. The spokesman would not say whether Johnson had been investigated for misconduct or boundary violations, saying the archdiocese did not have Johnson's permission to disclose that information.

Was Johnson an example of a priest whose conduct never rose to the level requiring action? Or did archdiocese officials look the other way in response to concerns? Interviews with parishioners and church staff, as well as a review of documents, reveal parish after parish sought action on Johnson -- and saw little.

Three weeks after Johnson learned that Elsen had made a report, he fired Elsen from his custodian job, citing "gross disloyalty" and poor job performance, among other reasons.

It wasn't the first time church officials had faced concerns about the priest, and it wasn't the last.

In his 32 years in the archdiocese, Johnson was placed in 10 parishes. Pastor assignments, as opposed to less-senior positions, are set at six years, but Johnson was moved, on average, every 3.6 years while a pastor. Two of his pastor jobs lasted just two years.

Johnson, 66, did not respond to phone calls and a letter sent to his home address. He was not at home when a reporter visited his Robbinsdale apartment on several occasions.

Many parishioners described Johnson as a highly creative man who enjoyed celebrating Mass and reveled in the pomp and pageantry of it, often dressing in elegant vestments. He loved music. He championed the poor and immigrants.

But there were also questions, even from those who believed him to be harmless.

He surrounded himself with children. Not girls, just boys, said many who observed him. He posted numerous photos of boys in his living quarters.

He invited high school boys to pre-prom parties at the rectory and served dinners to groups of children in his private quarters, according to staff and parishioners.

Before he served in Red Wing, Johnson was pastor at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood from 1988 to 1992. Parishioner Mary Tacheny warned then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough about what she said were numerous "red flags" in Johnson's conduct.

Johnson would hand out cards to boys that read, "Good for a free lunch with Father," Tacheny said. The boys attended Presentation elementary school, which serves students through eighth grade. He then took the boys off school grounds for the lunches, Tacheny said.

Tacheny had been a member of Presentation for decades and served as a lector, a Eucharistic minister and a member of the liturgy committee. She also worked as an elementary teacher in the St. Paul Public Schools district.

In a meeting with McDonough and Johnson to discuss the matter, Johnson became angry with Tacheny and threatened to sue her for defamation, she said.

McDonough later told Tacheny that in his investigation he found no "smoking gun" in Johnson's conduct toward boys, Tacheny said.

Shawn Phillips and Mary Tacheny did not cross paths at Presentation, but Phillips had similar concerns about Johnson in the early 1990s.

Phillips, who later served as a victim advocate on an archdiocese team responding to clergy sexual abuse, said his questions prompted a second investigation.

"I was the one that turned him in because I come out of a hospital background, and counseling, and our sense of boundaries is very strict," Phillips said. "I just thought there were some bad boundaries (by Johnson)."

He declined to elaborate on the behavior he observed.

McDonough also took part in the second investigation, which turned up no evidence of sexual abuse, Phillips said. Phillips now serves as a pastoral minister at the Church of St. Timothy in Blaine.

After four years as pastor at Presentation, Johnson was reassigned to St. Joseph's in Red Wing. A little more than two years later, the archdiocese moved him again, this time to St. John the Evangelist in Hopkins. He left there in October 1996, after two years as pastor. He then went on sabbatical to Australia for several months, archdiocese officials said.

In April 1997, the archdiocese assigned him as pastor of St. Walburga and St. Martin churches in Rogers for what would prove to be another short stint. In 2000, he became pastor at Guardian Angels in Chaska. He went on sabbatical for a year in 2008 and then retired at age 60. He remains a priest.

Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens said this summer that "it's difficult to know what the needs of the archdiocese, the needs of particular parishes and the needs of a priest were more than 25 years ago. ... At this point, to my knowledge, he was not moved because of an accusation of sexual abuse of minors because, to our knowledge, no complaint was ever made."

A staff member at Guardian Angels emailed Archbishop Harry Flynn about an incident she witnessed in November 2006.

A man and his adolescent son had come into the parish office. The boy was leaning up against a wall wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt with no jacket.

"Fr. Johnson pushed into him and 'pinned' him against the wall (with) full body contact, his face was directly in the young man's face and asked him where his coat was ... kept him in that position for several minutes," she wrote.

Johnson joked and teased the boy about not wearing a jacket, the staff member said in an interview.

"He put his knee between this boy's legs, and he was pressed (against the wall)," she told the Pioneer Press. She believed the action was sexual.

Flynn did not respond to the email, but someone from his office did about a month later, she said. The gist of the archdiocese message: "Basically, that they were handling it."

The staff member did not know that four days before the incident, a teacher and others from Guardian Angels School had met with Flynn and Johnson. Johnson was ordered to maintain a set of written "boundaries," according to a March 2007 email from the teacher to Flynn obtained by the Pioneer Press.

"At my meeting with you on August 9th, I had mentioned to you that Fr. Johnson has no boundaries," wrote Tom Epperly, the school's athletics director and health teacher. "My major concerns are for the safety of the children."

"When I heard about this (pinning) incident, a sick feeling hit me in the gut. I thought you told me he has boundaries and if he steps over again that's it. Looks like a pretty big step to me!"

Epperly died in 2009.

Cozzens said Flynn "received the letter and responded ... stating he would address the issue. I do know that, if we received a letter like this today, we would investigate it immediately."

The archbishop also heard from another longtime church member in July 2002.

The man and his wife showed a reporter a letter he had written to Flynn, telling the archbishop that Johnson invited two high school boys to accompany him on a trip to Cancun, Mexico, four months after arriving at Guardian Angels. One of the boys was 17 at the time of the invitation; the other had just turned 18.

Before the trip, Johnson sent them postcards, the church member said. On the younger boy's card was a picture of a statue of two naked males, their bodies entwined. A preprinted message said, "Our newfound love on the beaches of Cancun," according to the member's letter.

On the other side, Johnson wrote, "Soon you will be 18 and you don't need your parents' consent. Don't tell your parents about it."

In response to the parishioner's letter three months later, Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates wrote that he had discussed his concerns with Johnson.

"He indicated that it was his judgment that the information was 'not fully accurate,' " Pates said in a letter the man's wife showed to a reporter. "He and I concurred that the most reasonable first step would be for you and him to be in direct conversation about the matters. ... I suggest you take this step."

The parishioner rejected the suggestion.

Now in his early 30s, the older of the two boys told the Pioneer Press that Johnson befriended them after regularly seeing them at Saturday night Mass. He said Johnson hosted dinners for the two boys at the rectory. The teen said he never suspected anything was amiss, even when Johnson gave them gifts and "would call me almost every day."

When Johnson invited the two to Cancun, "We're like, s-weet! Spring vacation in Mexico!" he said. But his family was suspicious. They refused to allow him to go.

The younger of the two boys could not be reached for comment. It was not clear whether he accompanied Johnson to Mexico.

In October 2007, with less than two weeks' notice, Johnson wrote his flock a letter saying he was leaving for health reasons caused by stress. He planned to do missionary work overseas, he said, before coming back to "accept an assignment where I can best serve the people."

But that wasn't the entire story, said Jennifer Haselberger, former chancellor for canonical affairs for the archdiocese.

She said top archdiocese officials were under so much pressure to remove Johnson from Guardian Angels that they made him a deal: Leave the parish in exchange for full salary and benefits, plus about $2,000 a month for housing.

A regular priest's salary does not include such a housing allowance.

Officially, at age 60, Johnson took a medical leave from October 2007 to the end of the year, and Guardian Angels got a new priest. Johnson spent the following year on sabbatical in India and Nepal, according to archdiocese records.

As of December 2011, Johnson's status hadn't changed -- he was still on "sabbatical," Haselberger said. His priestly faculties were not restricted.

Haselberger resigned from her job in April 2013 in protest over the archdiocese's handling of sexual abuse cases.

Mark Dusbabek became close to Johnson when he was a student at St. Joseph school in Red Wing and Johnson the pastor there. He has kept in touch since -- even after more than 20 years -- and said he "would stand up for Father any given day of the week."

"He has been an incredibly positive influence in my life, as well as so many other young people who've needed it," Dusbabek said.

Elsen, the janitor who was fired and who later sued, had an affair with a teacher at the school; that's why he was let go, Dusbabek said.

Elsen confirmed the affair, but documents in his court case disclose that Johnson told the archdiocese human resources director in May 1993 that he decided to fire Elsen 11 days after learning it was Elsen who had reported his behavior with boys to church authorities. Elsen made the original report in October 1992.

Dusbabek, a star member of the Red Wing Central High School swim team at the time, was the subject of some of those concerns. His coach had told Elsen that Johnson frequently attended swim meets and gave gifts to Dusbabek and others. Dusbabek and his father, Don, confirmed that Johnson gave Mark money for college. Don Dusbabek also spoke highly of the priest.

Mark Dusbabek, now 40, said his home life was problematic during high school. Johnson was the parent he felt he lacked. Johnson encouraged him to go to college when no one else in his family had -- an achievement he attained.

Johnson now contributes time and money helping at a school the priest started in Africa, Dusbabek said.

He charged that the archdiocese is hidding pedophiles, but Johnson is not one of them.

"It just breaks my heart to hear that this is coming up again," Dusbabek said. "All he's ever done was to be a good person in someone's life."

When Haselberger learned Johnson was still receiving the equivalent of his full salary, benefits and the housing allowance years after his last parish assignment -- as were several priests accused of child abuse or other misconduct -- she tried to stop the arrangement.

The extra payments were suspended for a short period before Bishop Lee Piche directed they be reinstated, Haselberger said in an affidavit filed this year in a lawsuit against a different priest. (In the affidavit, Johnson's name is redacted, but it is clear from the details that Haselberger is discussing him.)

According to the salary schedule for priests in the archdiocese, posted on its website, an active priest with Johnson's 32 years of service earns nearly $39,000 salary. A 70-year-old retired priest makes about $1,920 per month if he has put in at least 40 years, and the amount is capped at that level, Haselberger said. That comes to $23,040 per year, plus supplemental health insurance.

As of last year, Johnson was receiving $39,000 per year, plus $24,000 for housing, through the "special arrangement" he had worked out with the archdiocese, Haselberger said. That does not include his benefits.

The archdiocese disputed those figures.

"The financial arrangements are such that you are better off as a priest messing up than when you were doing your job," Haselberger said.

In fact, Haselberger said in her affidavit, McDonough argued that Johnson was "an example of the success that could be achieved" by doing something other than removing a troublesome priest from the priesthood.

"I strongly objected to the categorization of the resolution of this matter as a 'success', given that we had given Father (Johnson) a significant amount of money to which he was not entitled to effect a result that could have been achieved at no cost," had imposed no restrictions on him, had made no warnings about their concerns, had not required him to be monitored and "had given him free time and financial wherewithal to pursue his inappropriate activities elsewhere," she wrote.

McDonough did not respond to a request for comment.

Johnson told Haselberger he needed the extra payments for "travel he was doing to an orphanage or school in Africa or Latin America," Haselberger said.

The archdiocese said this week that Johnson's salary was $31,000 and was discontinued at the end of December 2011. At some point after that he began to receive his pension. His housing supplement was eliminated in June 2013, officials said.