MONTANA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Predator priest worked in MT
New records about him just released
Catholic officials should do outreach, group says
SNAP to bishops: “Don’t let his victims suffer in shame, isolation and self-blame”
A now deceased Catholic priest, who was credibly accused of sexually abusing kids, worked in Montana according to long-secret church files about him that have just been made public.
And a support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging Montana’s two Catholic bishops to “use their vast resources to reach out to anyone else he may have hurt.”
Fr. Robert S. Koerner was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Billings from 1956 to 1963, according to documents posted on Bishop-Accountability.org and the website of Los Angeles attorney Ray Boucher. The records were released on July 31, 2013 as part of a 2007 settlement of some 660 clergy sex abuse victims in southern California.
According to a letter from then-San Diego Bishop Robert Brom in 2003, Fr. Koerner “sexually abused children throughout the years of his pastorate at St. Patrick Parish [in Calipatria, CA], from 1963 to 1990.”
Catholic officials have a duty, a victims group says, to “aggressively seek out and help anyone who may have been hurt by him.”
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