Wehmeyer, convicted of sexual abuse, removed from the priesthood

By Peter Cox
Minnesota Public Radio
March 11, 2015

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/03/11/wehmeyer-laicized

Curtis Wehmeyer

A former St. Paul priest — now serving a five-year prison sentence for sexually abusing two boys — has been removed from the priesthood by the Vatican.

• February 2014: Mother of priest's victims reveals family pain, more abuse and church's rebuke

Curtis Wehmeyer, 50, was sentenced in 2013 for abusing a 12-year-old and 14-year-old boy and possessing child pornography while serving at St. Paul's Church of the Blessed Sacrament. In November 2014, he was charged with second-degree sexual assault in Wisconsin.

In a written statement Wednesday, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Pope Francis dismissed Wehmeyer, who has been "permanently and definitively barred from presenting himself as a priest."

• September 2013: Archdiocese knew of priest's sexual misbehavior, yet kept him in ministry

Wehmeyer served in several St. Paul area churches from 2001 to 2011.

In 2013, MPR News reported that top archdiocese leaders knew of Wehmeyer's sexual compulsions for nearly a decade before his arrest, but allowed him to remain in the ministry and kept information about Wehmeyer from parishioners.

• January 2014: Document shows church leaders knew of abuse, but waited to report