MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, Dec. 1
Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )
Once again, a predator priest has won access to vulnerable families through a non-profit group because most Catholic officials refuse to post predator priests names on church websites.
In 2010, a Duluth newspaper exposed Fr. Thomas E. Eriksen as working with Special Olympics in Kansas City.
Now, a Minnesota radio station discloses that he has recently been volunteering at a Twin Cities nonprofit, the Community Emergency Assistance Program.
He got these positions despite
—a pending criminal investigation into his alleged child sex crimes,
— a civil settlement with a Catholic of at least $3 million dollars, and
— three decades of knowledge of his crimes by Twin Cities Catholic officials.
For a dozen years, we’ve begged bishops to take the quickest, cheapest and easiest step to safeguard kids –put pedophile priests’ names on church websites. If they’re too dangerous to have working in parishes, they too dangerous to have living among unsuspecting families.) All but a few bishops resist this simple, common sense precaution. Among them are church officials in Superior Wisconsin and Kansas City Missouri Bishop Robert Finn. (Ericksen spent time in both of these dioceses.)
Some of the blame falls to these non-profit agencies – Community Emergency Assistance Program in St. Paul and Special Olympics in Kansas City. (How hard is it to Google prospective employees and volunteers?) Some belong to the Sawyer County Wisconsin law enforcement officials who apparently aren’t trying very hard to find and question Ericksen. (If a reporter can locate him and get him to confess on the phone, how hard can a police investigation be?) But much of the blame belongs to Catholic officials in Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin who continue to do little or nothing to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners or the public about men they know are dangerous.
Ericksen reportedly molested two Wisconsin boys, Paul and James Eck, who have spoken publicly about the abuse and are pursuing criminal charges against Ericksen. They sued and were paid a $3 million dollar settlement by Superior Catholic church officials.
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