MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News
Jerome Christenson Daily News Mar 2, 2016
Sometimes you don’t have to see the movie. Sometimes it’s not a movie at all.
A letter arrived at my house last week that, right away, caught my attention. Now I don’t know about you, but there’s something about an attorney’s return address on an envelope addressed to me that makes finding out what’s inside a lot more important than the latest missive from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. So I stood there, barely in the door, coat still on and read, “We are sending this letter to anyone who may have attended a parish or school in the Diocese of Winona …”
The letter was from Jeff Anderson & Associates, a reminder that “anyone who was sexually abused by a priest, deacon teacher, or anyone else associated with the Diocese of Winona … must bring a claim by the May 25, 2016 deadline.”
I put the letter down and took off my coat. I hadn’t been abused.
But I could have been. When I was a boy the Bishop of Winona moved Thomas Adamson, one of the accused priests, into the rectory three blocks from my house.
I was fortunate. My friend and classmate was not so lucky.
He wasn’t the first. The bishop knew that when he sent Adamson to our town.
He knew.
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