MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, October 23
Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )
We are glad the names of four newly “outed” predator priests are surfacing today, especially because three of them are likely living among unsuspecting neighbors in Massachusetts, and Arizona and Forest Lake, MN. (Fr. Donald Drummer, Fr. Robert P. Clark and Fr. John Owens, respectively). But police, prosecutors, parishioners, parents and the public need and deserve to know where and when these priests assaulted children. Archbishop Neinstedt must be more forthcoming if kids are to be better protected and victims are to be better supported.
Catholic officials are NOT disclosing when abuse reports were made against these priests. We suspect that in virtually every case, St. Paul church employees sat on this information for years or decades.
Let’s look specifically at the four newly-named priests. With each of them, Twin Cities Catholic officials kept secret about the child sex abuse allegations against them for years. This secrecy continued unabated over the past decade, despite an allegedly binding national US bishops’ abuse policy that supposedly mandates “openness and transparency.”
They hid accusations against Fr. Clark for at least 14 years, against Fr. Owens for at least nine years, and against Fr. Drummer for at least eight years. Among just those three clerics, that’s 31 years of secrecy, recklessness and callousness.
(Fr. Clark was “removed from active ministry on March 26, 2002.” Fr. Owens was quietly ousted in 2005. Ditto with Fr. Drummer in 2006. And we suspect that allegations against Fr. Majerus were first made in 1971, but he stayed on the job until 1987.)
This new information confirms again just how much St. Paul Catholic officials have endangered and continue to endanger kids. In each case, Twin Cities church officials chose to endanger kids and protect predators by making these moves behind the scenes instead of disclosing them in public.
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