MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
November 11, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn. — In a reversal of decades-old policy, Archbishop John Nienstedt said he plans to release the names of some priests who have sexually abused children.
The list will be limited to living priests who still reside in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and who have been determined by the archdiocese to be guilty of abuse. Nienstedt did not say how many names would be released, and it’s unclear if the list would include any priests not already known to the public through lawsuits and media reports.
Nienstedt’s decision comes in response to an MPR News investigation, which found that the archdiocese continues to protect a 74-year-old priest who admitted to sexually abusing children on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in the mid-1970s. The Rev. Clarence Vavra admitted to the abuse as part of a psychological evaluation in 1995, but Archbishops John Roach and Harry Flynn kept Vavra in ministry and did not contact police. Flynn asked Vavra to retire in 2003 – and gave him $650 a month in extra retirement payments. Vavra lives half a block from a middle school in New Prague, Minn. Prior to MPR News’ report, he was not a known abuser. …
THE LIST
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who’s represented thousands of victims of clergy sexual abuse across the country, has asked the archdiocese for years to release the names of offending priests.
Anderson often refers in news conferences to the list of 33 priests that he received from the archdiocese as part of a lawsuit in 2009. The list, which named priests against whom there were credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors, was sealed by a judge and cannot be released without a court order.
At a hearing in Ramsey County on Oct. 3, Anderson asked Judge John Van de North to unseal the list. “Until we know who the credibly accused offenders are and where they are … the peril exists,” he said.
The list of 33 priests is likely much longer than the one the archdiocese plans to release.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.