MN- “Most abusive Twin Cities priest” also worked in New Ulm; SNAP responds

By Verne Wagner
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
September 17, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_most_abusive_twin_cities_priest_also_worked_in_new_ulm_snap_responds

According to just-released church records, for almost 60 years, numerous Minnesota Catholic officials concealed the crimes of a predator priest who:

– was at a church retreat house in Nevis, Minn., that let him say weekend masses at nearby parishes even though center staff had been warning in writing that he had molested children, and 

– was returned to ministry as a chaplain at a nursing home in 1969 in Ivanhoe in the New Ulm diocese. (This fact had not been reported previously.) 

We urge New Ulm Bishop John M. LeVoir to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Louis Heitzer.

A Twin Cities Catholic official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, wrote in 2002 that Fr. Heitzer was “‘perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese’ abusing kids ‘every place he went.’”

Earlier this year, we prodded Bishop LeVoir to take action about predator priests. As best we can tell, he has ignored us.

We hope he won't ignore us this time. In his diocese, there may be eight or ten men who struggle in silence, shame, secrecy and self-doubt, living sad and lonely lives as they battle the life-long harm caused by childhood sexual trauma. They deserve comfort and consolation. They deserve a bishop who acts like a compassionate shepherd, not a cold-hearted CEO.

Bishop LeVoir should use his diocesan websites, parish bulletins, and pulpit announcements to seek out and help anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Heitzer or any other child molesting cleric in the New Ulm area.