MINNESOTA
Grand Forks Herald
By Becky Jacobs on Jun 3, 2016
Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks is joining a growing list of Minnesota Catholic entities sued for clergy accused of sexual abusing children.
A letter was sent to parishioners May 26 stating that Sacred Heart’s “parish and school, along with a number of parishes and schools in our diocese and other Minnesota dioceses have recently been sued under the Minnesota Child Victims Act.”
The act, put in place in 2013, changed the statute of limitations applied in civil legal claims for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to give them a window to file claims, even from abuses that took place decades earlier. The deadline to file these claims just passed on May 25.
The lawsuit against Sacred Heart alleges that the Rev. Stanley Bourassa, who died in 2004, committed abuse while assigned to the parish from 1965 to 1968.
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