Rochester Priest Defends Actions As Vicar General
By Kay Fate
A Rochester priest who once held a top leadership role in the Diocese of Winona is mentioned several times in the files released Tuesday describing abuse allegations against priests. Rev. Monsignor Gerald Mahon, pastor at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, served as vicar general from 1987 to 1997, he said Tuesday, working under then-Bishop John Vlazny. As vicar general, he dealt with cases of alleged abuse, he said. "I always took claims of sexual assault very seriously," Mahon said in an interview Tuesday, "and confronted priests with Bishop Vlazny. I took it very seriously, any victim I ever visited with, any reports of sexual abuse, and I took seriously confronting priests." Among those priests was Joseph Cashman, whose file indicates he is now married to a man and living in Texas. A memo from Mahon to Vlazny in January 1991 indicates allegations of Cashman "at a recent meeting centered on his inappropriate sexual behavior with high school students. Cashman had high school boys to his cabin and made aggressive attempts to put suntan lotion on them. He also approached two others while they were in the shower and attempted to touch them inappropriately." Five years earlier, Mahon sent a letter to then-Bishop Loras Watters, outlining details of "someone who had an unhealthy experience with Cashman and is struggling with chemical dependency." Vlazny removed Cashman's "faculties," his ability to perform the functions of a priest, in December 1991. He has still not been removed from the priesthood, and as recently as March of this year, the diocese was paying his health and dental coverage, the documents say. Another priest was Robert Taylor, whose faculties were removed in 1994, meaning he could no longer say Mass or provide sacraments. Taylor, who served as pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Rochester from 1982 to 1984, began to exhibit inappropriate sexual behavior during that time, the files show. Mahon's name first appears on a May 1993 document about Taylor's "sexual passes" at children in a parish in southwest Minnesota. Taylor denied the allegations. Later that month, a memo from Mahon to Vlazny discusses a note the janitor found on the rectory door from a man who'd been living there with Taylor. "I no longer want to be your lover — I have found a girlfriend," the note said. A year later, Mahon learned Taylor was entering apartments in a complex he owned in Sioux Falls, S.D. Multiple tenants — all of them young men — came home to discover Taylor there, naked. Several memos during May 1994 outline Taylor's bizarre behavior before his duties as a priest were suspended in June that year. He died in 2012 in Sioux Falls, never having been removed from the priesthood. Mahon said Tuesday he didn't remember dealing with multiple allegations against one priest. "I don't recall that in our experience, and I think that's a very distinctive difference" between his tenure and the rampant abuse of the '60s and '70s. "At the time, I remember so clearly confronting priests in such a serious way, and removing priests from active ministry," he said of his time as vicar general. "That was the first step, and we certainly did that," then removed their "faculties" so they could no longer act as priests. "Then, I think we relied on professionals in treatment centers to help us with the next step," he said. "We were pretty assertive in removing priests from active ministry." Looking back, does he wish he'd simply gone to police? "Clearly, as I look at that today, I would see that — like we do now — immediately contacting law enforcement would be absolutely an essential practice," Mahon said. Contact: kfate@postbulletin.com
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