MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER and CHAO XIONG , Star Tribune staff writers Updated: October 13, 2014
A settlement reached Monday in a historic lawsuit that has rocked the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese will require the archdiocese to overhaul how it handles reports of clergy sex abuse, how reports are investigated, and how it responds to abuse victims.
A 17-point child protection plan was revealed at an often emotional news conference in St. Paul that brought together on the same platform — for the first time — archdiocese officials, victim’s attorney Jeff Anderson and abuse victims.
The plan requires the archdiocese to report any child abuse claim to law enforcement, and refrain from conducting its own internal investigation until law enforcement finishes its investigation. The provision comes in response to victim’s complaints that the archdiocese has dismissed their claims based on their own findings.
“We’ve forged a new way and that new way is an action plan that not only protects kids in the future but honors the pain and sorrow and the grief of survivors in the past,” Anderson said at the news conference in downtown St. Paul.
He was joined at the microphone by Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, vicar general Charles Lachowitzer, two survivors of sexual abuse, and his co-attorney on the case, Mike Finnegan. Also on hand was Minneapolis attorney Charles Rogers, who represented the archdiocese in the negotiations over the past month that led to the historic plan.
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