MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star-Tribune
May 31, 2018
By Rochelle Olson and Mary Lynn Smith
For many, the announcement was closure as they continue to heal their scars of emotional trauma.
Marie Mielke held her arms out as far as she could reach, her hands open and her fingers spread.
That’s how expansive and open to the world she felt as she stood before the bright media cameras in her lawyer’s office Thursday among fellow survivors of childhood sex abuse by Minnesota priests.
“Father Michael Keating didn’t take anything from me,” she said staunchly. “I’m standing here now fighting for my babies.”
Mielke was the third victim to speak after attorney Jeff Anderson announced the $210 million settlement for nearly 450 Minnesota victims. Several victims stood alongside lawyers and media in the darkly paneled conference room.
The victims, now adults, were preyed upon, sexually assaulted and raped by priests as children at church and school.
Those who ended up in Anderson’s conference room described pain-filled decades of post-traumatic stress as the archdiocese both covered up for predator priests and denied their bad behavior.
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