MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 11/07/2013 12:01:00 AM CST | UPDATED: 109 MIN. AGO
A priest who worked in St. Paul and Forest Lake parishes was sued Thursday by a man who alleges the priest sexually abused him after archdiocese officials covered up earlier reports of abuse.
The Rev. Jerome Kern, now 72, was serving as a priest at Our Lady of Grace in Edina when he “engaged in unpermitted sexual contact” for several years in the 1970s with the plaintiff, identified as Doe 26, the suit claims. The man, now in his 50s, was 12 to 16 years old at the time, he said.
Kern had come from an assignment at the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul — where reports of at least two abused children came to the archdiocese, said the suit, filed in Ramsey County District Court.
“Upon receiving complaints about Kern’s involvement with the two children, the archdiocese transferred Kern to Our Lady of Grace” in Edina, the lawsuit says.
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.