MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Aug 11, 2014
Documents made public Monday in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis show that Archbishop John Nienstedt made false statements under oath in April about his knowledge of a priest accused of child sexual abuse.
Nienstedt said in an April 2 deposition that he didn’t know until March that a priest accused in the 1980s of sexually assaulting at least one teenage girl and “sexually exploiting” several women was still in ministry, a violation of church policy.
“I was not aware that he was publicly in ministry,” Nienstedt said, referring to the Rev. Kenneth LaVan. “And as soon as I realized it, I had his faculties removed.” Though retired, LaVan continued to assist with Masses at Twin Cities parishes until he was formally removed from all ministry in December 2013. Nienstedt said he learned of LaVan’s continuing ministry as part of a review of clergy files conducted by the Kinsale Group, a firm hired by the archdiocese.
However, documents released Monday show that, year after year, the archbishop received updates on LaVan and approved his continuing work at Twin Cities parishes, as recently as Aug. 15, 2013.
For example, Nienstedt received an annual report on LaVan in 2013 from a church official who monitors abusive priests. The monitor described “two face to face contacts” with LaVan over the past year and noted that LaVan assists at “a few parishes in the metro area when asked,” primarily St. Olaf in Minneapolis.
Nienstedt reviewed the information and approved the arrangement for another year.
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