MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 08/20/2014
St. Paul archdiocese put accused priest on marriage tribunal, documents say
He was once a terrified 11-year-old filled with guilt and shame at being molested by his St. Paul parish priest.
As an adult serving six years aboard Navy submarines, he felt safer next to a nuclear warhead in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than he had at church.
Now, he said, he’s not terrified anymore. And he wants the world to know his name.
“My name is Jon Jaker,” said the 54-year-old resident of Orange, Calif., who won a settlement Wednesday morning in his lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Jaker claimed he was sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Stitts at the rectory of St. Leo Parish (now Lumen Christi in the Highland Park neighborhood).
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