NORTH DAKOTA
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: John J. Owens was ordained for the Bismarck, North Dakota diocese in 1960. He assisted at parishes in Minot, Mandan, Williston and Trenton and went on to pastor parishes in towns including Leipzig, Douglas, Wilton and Menoken. Owens was longtime director of diocesan communications and editor of the diocesan paper. He also hosted a radio program which focused on outreach to area youth. He retired in 1999 to Forest Lake Minnesota, where he provided temporary assistance in parishes until 2004. Forest Lake is part of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese.
In 2002 a report was made to the Bismarck diocese that Owens had engaged in sexual misconduct toward a minor. Owens’ faculties were removed by the diocese, but he was allowed to continue as a fill-in priest in Minnesota until 2004; his faculties were removed there in 2005. The accusation wasn’t made public until October 23, 2014, when the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis included Owens’ name on a list of clergy with substantiated claims against them of child sexual abuse. Details of the abuse have not been released, except that it is said to have occurred in North Dakota. He is said to be living a “life of atonement.”
Ordained: 1960
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