MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 19, 2014
Documents show the Rev. Michael Keating’s career was advancing as investigators gathered information about alleged improprieties.
Students wept in the Department of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas when the Rev. Michael Keating took a leave of absence last fall over a child sexual abuse lawsuit filed against him in St. Paul.
Few could reconcile the allegations in the suit — that Keating had abused a 13-year-old girl while studying to be a priest — with the charismatic 57-year-old professor known for his spellbinding lectures and aggressive defense of traditional Catholic values.
When the suit was filed, former Archbishop Harry Flynn and his top aide, who had known about the allegations, abruptly resigned from the St. Thomas board of trustees. The university launched its own investigation of Keating, including why university officials were not told about the alleged abuse, about a church investigation that raised some questions about Keating’s behavior with other women, or a set of recommendations that Keating’s contact with adolescents and young women be restricted.
“That was certainly not on my radar,” said Marisa Kelly, a former dean at St. Thomas who had responsibility over Catholic Studies from 2006 to 2011, a period when Keating was building his reputation in the department even as he was being investigated.
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