MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Sep 5, 2014
Leaders of the Twin Cities archdiocese kept a priest in ministry despite sexual contact with women under his pastoral care and didn’t report allegations of child sex abuse to police, according to documents released today in a clergy abuse lawsuit.
More than 1,000 pages from internal files show how church leaders protected the Rev. Richard Jeub for decades. The documents detail allegations that Jeub sexually abused two teenage girls and sexually exploited vulnerable women under his care. Jeub, 74, retired in 2002 – twenty years after the archdiocese received the first complaint against him. He moved to the Duluth area, where he failed to persuade the Catholic diocese to allow him to assist in parishes. No records exist of any reports to police. It’s illegal in Minnesota for a priest to have sexual contact with someone under his pastoral or counseling care.
In a 1989 memo, the Rev. Kevin McDonough, who would later serve as vicar general, told Archbishop John Roach that one of Jeub’s accusers “is being advised to file criminal and/or civil action against Father Jeub.”
McDonough wrote, “As you know, sexual exploitation by a therapist, including a clergy person in a therapeutic role, is a felony in Minnesota … There is no reporting requirement around this statute (unlike in the case of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults) and, therefore, we are under no obligation to file a criminal complaint against Jeub.”
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