MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran · St. Paul, Minn. · Jan 11, 2014
Lawyers for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona want more time to challenge a judge’s order to release the names of priests recently accused of child sexual abuse.
The lawyers have asked Ramsey County Judge John Van de North to suspend the Feb. 5 deadline for the disclosure of the names of priests accused since 2004. In separate court filings, they argued that the judge’s order went too far and could harm the reputations of falsely accused priests.
“With all due respect to the Court, it is the Archdiocese position that this Court has exceeded its jurisdiction and authority in ordering the Archdiocese to make certain disclosures of all priests accused of child abuse regardless of when and under what circumstances those accusations were made,” wrote archdiocese lawyer Daniel Haws.
Van de North ordered the release of the names of “credibly accused” priests on a 2004 list and the names of all priests accused of child sexual abuse since then at a hearing on Dec. 2. For the more recent names, Van de North ordered they be released regardless of whether Catholic officials deemed the allegations credible.
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