Curious that they have to “follow the law” when it involves paying a priest rapist, but not paying the victims of the priest rapist.
By Jerome Christenson
The Diocese of Winona has offered a public explanation of why it continues to pay pension benefits to a defrocked pedophile priest, a week after the revelation was made public by a law firm suing the diocese.
“Recently, there has been criticism of the Diocese of Winona for providing former priest, Thomas Adamson, with his pension benefits,” reads a statement released first to parishioners, then to the public.
“The provision of Mr. Adamson’s benefit is not discretionary or voluntary, it is required by law,” the statement continues.
Adamson is paid out of the diocesan Priest Pension Fund, created to provide retirement income and health-care benefits to retired diocesan clergy. A priest who has served the diocese and made contributions to the retirement fund for 10 years is vested in the plan, and his right to be paid benefits from the plan is protected by state and federal law.
According to the diocese: “The Diocese cannot elect to withhold vested pension benefits from employees even when the employee has committed misconduct. The Diocese of Winona strictly adheres to the legal obligations associated with the pension plan.”
Adamson, ordained a priest in 1958, continued in active ministry until 1985, after allegations became public that he had sexually abused boys in parishes where he had been assigned. In 2009 he was laicized — officially removed from the Roman Catholic priesthood — by Pope Benedict XVI on the recommendation of Bishop Bernard Harrington.
In a sworn deposition made public earlier this month, Adamson admitted to having sexual contact with at least a dozen boys over two decades of ministry, stopping only when one of his victims came forward publicly in 1984.
While Adamson never faced criminal abuse charges — the statute of limitations had expired — in addition to lawsuits currently before the court, he has been accused of sexual abuse in three civil suits settled out of court, and a fourth suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was decided in favor of the complainant.
Still, “Thomas Adamson’s laicization does not divest him from receiving his pension benefits,” the diocese states.
“The continued payment of Thomas Adamson’s pension benefits should not be viewed in any fashion as condoning or supporting the horrific crimes he has perpetrated upon children.”
Faced with tough questions under oath last month, former Twin Cities archbishop Harry Flynn said at least 134 times that he could not remember how he handled clergy sexual abuse cases during his 13-year tenure, according to documents made public Wednesday.
Flynn, 81, retired six years ago. He said he didn’t have dementia or other diagnosed memory problems. “I think it has more to do with age than anything,” he said, although he noted that he has been diagnosed with cancer, pneumonia and Legionnaires’ disease.
The former archbishop said he did not report any accusations of child sexual abuse to police and doesn’t recall asking anyone else to report abuse claims, either, according to a transcript of the May 14 deposition released by victims’ attorneys. Flynn claimed no memory of a high-profile lawsuit brought in the mid-1990s by a man who said he was abused by the Rev. Robert Kapoun. The case attracted national attention at the time.
Flynn testified as part of a lawsuit filed by a man who says he was sexually abused by the Rev. Thomas Adamson as a child in the 1970s. The man claims the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on accused priests secret. The broad claim has allowed the man’s attorneys, Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, to question archdiocese officials about decisions from the 1970s to the present. The archdiocese has also been forced to turn over thousands of internal documents on abusive priests.
Rev. Kevin McDonough testified under oath April 16 Video courtesy of Jeff Anderson and Associates
Under oath, Flynn testified that he spent a lot of time outside of the archdiocese handling the national crisis and delegated authority to archdiocese attorney Andrew Eisenzimmer and then-vicar general Kevin McDonough. “It’s unfortunate that we did not pay more attention to this as a result,” he said of the archdiocese cases.
Anderson questioned Flynn about his interactions with Archbishop John Nienstedt, who replaced him in 2008.
Nienstedt said under oath in April that he couldn’t remember key abuse cases and never provided complete files to police. He also claimed that McDonough told him not to write down some information on abusive priests for fear it could be uncovered in a lawsuit.
Archbishops Flynn and Nienstedt Greta Cunningham/MPR News
Flynn testified that he didn’t recall any similar advice from McDonough and doesn’t remember any situation in which he declined to write down information.
When first asked in the deposition, Flynn said Nienstedt “probably” asked him for the names of offending priests but wasn’t certain. Later Flynn said he didn’t think Nienstedt asked him for the names but recalled that Nienstedt “was in communication about this subject” with McDonough and Eisenzimmer.
Flynn said he didn’t recall whether he received a list of offenders from his predecessor, Archbishop John Roach. He said he didn’t know why he refused to release the names of priests “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse.
Flynn said that although he couldn’t recall most abuse cases, he did recall some details about an incident involving the Rev. Joseph Gallatin, a priest who went on leave in December.
He said Gallatin touched someone on the shoulder “with his finger only” during a camping trip. It was an “inappropriate touch” but not abusive, Flynn said.
Internal records reviewed by MPR News showed that Gallatin admitted that he rubbed the chest of a teenage boy under his shirt while he slept in a bunk bed on the camping trip. Gallatin explained that he wanted the boy to stop snoring but later admitted that the incident provided sexual gratification.
Flynn said he doesn’t recall whether he investigated the Gallatin incident but doesn’t think he restricted Gallatin’s ministry at the time.
Flynn has declined interview requests in the past and could not be reached for immediate comment. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis declined to comment, according to spokesman Jim Accurso.
Rev. Robert Kapoun is among the admitted child abusers to whom Flynn gave special payments. Jeffrey Thompson/MPR News
Payments to abusers
MPR News reported last fall that Flynn gave special payments to admitted child abusers.
Under oath, Flynn explained that he provided payments because “in justice, we needed to give them some provision” for retirement and housing.
“I felt very strongly that they would not be able to get jobs very easily, and so I wanted to give them some help,” he said.
Flynn said he provided a “financial agreement” for the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson, a priest who pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse in 1983, “but I don’t recall what it was.”
Anderson, the victims’ attorney, asked, “What message do you think that sends to the victims that he’s abused that he’s receiving payments for having victimized them?”
“What message do you think that sends to the victims that he’s abused that he’s receiving payments for having victimized them?”
Attorney Jeff Anderson
“I don’t know, but what message would it send to the world if we threw these people out in the street without any difficulty, without any assistance?” Flynn said.
“If they were thrown into jail and reported to the police, that would send a powerful message, wouldn’t it?” Anderson said.
“Yes.”
“And if the files that were maintained on Gustafson or other priests who had offended were made available to law enforcement, that would also send a powerful message, wouldn’t it?” Anderson said.
“Powerful message, yes.”
“Why hasn’t it been done? Why haven’t the files been turned over to the police?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Flynn said.
“I can’t remember.”
Flynn couldn’t recall after the national abuse scandal in 2002 whether he had determined if any of his priests had been “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse.
Flynn also claimed not to remember specific allegations against the Rev. John Brown, the former director of the archdiocese’s Boy Scouts program, who has been accused of sexually abusing boys in Waverly, Minn.
Flynn said he only remembered a handful of priests accused of child sexual abuse. For example, he said he removed the Rev. Jerome Kern from “active ministry” but couldn’t recall why. He said he assumes it was because Kern had been accused of child sexual abuse “because that would have been the only reason” for his removal.
Flynn appeared confused about whether abusive priests had left the priesthood. MPR News has reported that most abusers remained priests, regardless of whether they had been removed from parish ministry. He claimed that admitted abusersGilbert Gustafson, Robert Kapoun, Robert Thurner and Michael Stevens had left the priesthood.
All four men remain priests.
When Anderson challenged Flynn’s recollection of the priests, the former archbishop said he didn’t know the process for defrocking priests.
Rev. Clarence Vavra at his home in New Prague Jeffrey Thompson/MPR News
Flynn also testified that didn’t know the Rev. Clarence Vavra, a priest who admitted in the mid-1990s that he tried to rape a boy on an Indian reservation in South Dakota in the 1970s.
After Flynn claimed no knowledge of Vavra, Anderson pulled out a memo that Flynn received from his top deputy, McDonough, in 1996. It said psychological testing had found that Vavra was sexually attracted to teenage boys.
Confronted with the memo, Flynn said he thought Vavra’s ministry was restricted amid the national abuse scandal in 2002.
Wehmeyer and Shelley
Anderson asked Flynn about the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a St. Paul priest who had approached young men for sex in a bookstore and received treatment for sexual problems. Wehmeyer later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography.
Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer Minnesota Department of Corrections
Flynn said Wehmeyer “never came on my radar as a potential risk of harm to children.” He said he only knew that Wehmeyer “had a same-sex attraction.”
Some people told him that Wehmeyer wasn’t friendly, Flynn recalled. “There wasn’t anything that gravely concerned me … They just wanted him to loosen up a bit.”
Anderson also asked Flynn about pornography found on the Rev. Jon Shelley’s computer.
The review found “borderline illegal” pornographic images, according to internal documents obtained by MPR News, but the archdiocese did not call police. Archdiocese chancellor Jennifer Haselberger discovered the images on several disks at the chancery. She notified law enforcement in 2013 shortly before she resigned in protest of the archdiocese’s handling of abuse cases.
Rev. Jonathan Shelley Photo courtesy of The Citizen/Deb Barnes
The archdiocese’s internal report found that Shelley had searched the Internet for the terms such as “blond boys sucking pics.”
Flynn testified that he couldn’t recall reading the private investigator’s report and denied knowledge of Shelley’s Internet search terms. He said McDonough told him that Shelley’s computer did not contain child pornography.
“I don’t know anything about computers,” he said. “And I’ve heard from people you can push things and things will come up, or push them accidentally.”
Montero
Anderson also asked Flynn about an abuse investigation into the Rev. Francisco “Fredy” Montero, a priest from Ecuador who returned to his native country amid a criminal investigation into whether he sexually abused a four-year-old girl.
Rev. Fredy Montero Ambar Espinoza/MPR News
Flynn said he thought that police had “cleared” Montero before he returned to Ecuador.
However, a document turned over by the archdiocese as part of the lawsuit shows that Flynn knew the investigation hadn’t been completed.
Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates and Hispanic ministry coordinator Anne Attea explained the situation in a July 12, 2007 letter to a bishop in Ecuador and copied Flynn.
“While no charges have been filed and the child has not made any incriminating overture to the police, the case is still under investigation,” they wrote.
“Ludicrous” accusation against Bishop Paul Dudley
Anderson also asked Flynn about allegations of child sexual abuse against Bishop Paul Dudley, who died in 2006.
A man came forward in 2002 to accuse Dudley of sexually abusing him when he was an altar boy at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis in the 1950s, according to media reports. Two women also accused Dudley of misconduct. One woman claimed Dudley acted inappropriately toward her in a public place in the 1960s. Another woman said Dudley sexually abusing her when he was the pastor of Our Lady of the Lake in Mound, Minn., in the mid-1970s, according to a 2003 Star Tribune report.
Flynn hired a private investigator to review the allegations, according to statements by the archdiocese at the time. In February 2003, Flynn announced that the investigation found no evidence to support the claims of the three accusers. Dudley denied the allegations.
Under oath last month, Flynn said Dudley had been accused of dancing with a teenage girl and had been “exonerated.” He called it “the most ludicrous accusation that could have been made about anyone.”
Flynn did not mention the other allegations against Dudley.
“Suspicious” of alleged victim’s parents
Anderson asked Flynn about how he handled allegations against the Rev. Michael Keating, a professor at the University of St. Thomas who went on leave last fall shortly before he was sued for alleged sexual abuse of a teenage girl in the 1990s. The alleged victim’s parents went to the archdiocese years earlier, and Flynn said he doubted the woman’s allegations.
“I was quite disturbed because the mother and father kept putting words into her mouth,” he said.
Rev. Michael Keating George Martell/The Pilot Media Group
He said he was “suspicious” of the woman’s parents. “I don’t know why, but I was,” he said.
Flynn said McDonough, his top deputy, disclosed information about the Keating case to Don Briel, the director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas. The Universityannounced Briel’s retirement last week amid an internal investigation into what he and others knew about the claims against Keating.
The archdiocese’s clergy review board deemed the allegation unsubstantiated but recommended that Keating not mentor young adults. Flynn testified that he cannot remember whether he followed the board’s recommendation to restrict Keating’s ministry.
Former top deputies the Rev. Peter Laird, McDonough, and former archdiocese official Robert Carlson, now the Archbishop of St. Louis, also testified under oath in the past two months. Laird testified that he told Nienstedt he should resign.
In his deposition, Flynn declined to criticize Nienstedt and wouldn’t say whether he thinks the archbishop should release all information on accused priests. “I don’t get my views since I retired,” Flynn said.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta apologized Monday for building a $2.2 million mansion for himself, a decision criticized by local Catholics who cited the example of austerity set by the new pope.
Archbishop Wilton Gregory recently moved into a nearly 6,400-square-foot (595-square-meter) residence. Its construction was made possible by a large donation from the estate of Joseph Mitchell, nephew of Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With The Wind,” the Civil War epic that made his family wealthy. When Mitchell died in 2011, he left an estate worth more than $15 million to the archdiocese on the condition it be used for “general religious and charitable purposes.”
Gregory said that he has received criticism over the spending in letters, emails and telephone messages.
“I am disappointed that, while my advisors (sic) and I were able to justify this project fiscally, logistically and practically, I personally failed to project the cost in terms of my own integrity and pastoral credibility with the people of God of north and central Georgia,” Gregory said in a column posted on the website of the archdiocesan newspaper, The Georgia Bulletin.
“I failed to consider the impact on the families throughout the Archdiocese who, though struggling to pay their mortgages, utilities, tuition and other bills, faithfully respond year after year to my pleas to assist with funding our ministries and services,” he added.
The Catholic leader said he will discuss the situation with several diocesan councils, including a special meeting of its finance council. If church representatives want the bishop to sell the home, Gregory said he will do so and move elsewhere.
The purchase of the sprawling home was part of a real estate deal made possible by money from Joseph Mitchell’s estate.
In his will, Mitchell requested that primary consideration be given to the Cathedral of Christ The King, where he worshipped. The cathedral received $7.5 million for its capital fund and spent roughly $1.9 million to buy the archbishop’s old home, according to tax records. Cathedral officials are planning to spend an additional $292,000 to expand Gregory’s old home so its priests can live there, freeing up space on the cathedral’s cramped campus.
After selling his home, Gregory needed a new residence.
The archbishop said that he made a mistake while designing a home with large meeting spaces and rooms for receptions and gatherings.
“What we didn’t stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the Church have changed,” Gregory said.
He demolished the one-story home on Mitchell’s property, which was donated to the church, and replaced it with a Tudor-style mansion. In January, a group of local Catholics met with the archbishop and asked that he sell the large home and return to his old residence. They cited the example of Pope Francis, who turned down living quarters in a Vatican palace and drives a simple car.
“The example of the Holy Father, and the way people of every sector of our society have responded to his message of gentle joy and compassion without pretense, has set the bar for every Catholic and even for many who don’t share our communion,” Gregory said.
Catholic church leaders in Minnesota were investigated by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), who alleges that the church embezzled funds to cover child abuse and other misconduct with church cash, sources in the Twin Cities report. The investigation cited internal church documents to make their case that leaders of the Catholic church, such as the Archdiocese in the Twin Cites (Minneapolis/Saint Paul), paid millions of dollars to keep secrets quiet.
MPR reported that the church had several secret accounts that led to financial abuse in the system. The accounts were used for payoffs for people like Rev. Stanley Kozlak, who fathered a child. Kozlak received payoffs for rent and living until he reached the age to retire on social security benefits. The internal documents in the church indicate that part of the agreement held that Kozlak would still be a priest, the Archbishop would have to sign a letter that states Kozlak isn’t a pedophile and that there would be negotiated child support. Over the course of nine years, from 2002 to 2011, the accounts had been used repeatedly and paid out around $11 million. That amounts to about three percent of revenue for that time period.
The efforts by the Catholic church to deal with clergy problems is staggering. Money was used to quietly allow some to leave their ministries. This strategy proved to be the back door to embezzlement within their secretly constructed financial system. Legal costs and therapy were also listed expenditures. In one instance, a private investigator was hired and paid more than $1o0,000 the Rochester Post Bulletin reported via Associated Press (AP). The Minnesota Catholic church leaders investigated appeared to have decided it was easier to cover up the problems with cash, but other abuse followed and it proved to be an expensive strategy.
The archdiocese made a statement on Thursday to address news of the investigation by MPR. They said they already hired a new CFO in December of 2012 to improve transparency, according to the report in the Post Bulletin. There are no government regulators that the Catholic church leaders are accountable to and the archbishop can spend money how he sees fit. There is a council that advises him, however. There will be a full audit completed by February.
MPR investigated to find that these payments, referred to as “disability” in the ledger account, were paid to victims and clergy. MPR reported a culture that kept many secrets within the walls of the Catholic church. Once accountant already pleaded guilty to stealing around $650,000 in cash from the church during these activities. He said people there knew what questions not to ask.
The MPR report and investigation also reveals the plump and healthy financial condition of the church, which has been infused with revenue over a five-year time span. Their operating revenue was up to around $40 million up to the point of 2011. Cash levels and assets grew as well, but now the Catholic church faces pressure from legal circumstances. The Minnesota Catholic church leaders tried to cover abuse with cash only to find more abuse and the threat of losing that very cash.
File under: Same Old Story — Archbishop thinks gay marriage bigger threat than sexually abusive priests
by Madeleine Baran
Archbishop John Nienstedt said he accepts responsibility for addressing the unfolding clergy sexual abuse crisis and regrets that a growing number of parishioners and priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have “lost confidence” in him.
However, he denied any abuse cover-up or illegal actions and repeated the archdiocese’s claim that there are no offending priests in active ministry.
Nienstedt’s remarks came in an e-mailed response to questions from MPR News. It’s the first time the archbishop has answered questions about the scandal since MPR News began publishing investigative reports in late September.
“As head of this local Church, I accept responsibility for addressing the issues that have been raised and am completely committed to finding the truth and fixing the problems that exist,” Nienstedt wrote. “My highest priorities are to ensure the safety of our children and to restore the trust of Catholics and our clergy. I will do everything in my power to do so.”
An MPR News investigation found Nienstedt and other top church officials failed to warn parishioners of a priest’s sexual addiction. That priest, the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, is serving five years in prison for sexually abusing two children and possessing child pornography.
Subsequent reports showed the archdiocese kept “borderline illegal” pornography found on the computer of the Rev. Jon Shelley in 2004 and gave extra payments to priests who sexually abused children.
In the Shelley case, police first learned of the images this year when Jennifer Haselberger, a canon lawyer who resigned in April, called authorities. The subsequent police investigation did not find child pornography, though the lead investigator questioned whether the archdiocese turned over all the evidence. St. Paul Police recently reopened the case.
Nienstedt continues to decline interview requests, even as some parishioners and priests now call for his resignation.
Nienstedt’s top deputy, the Rev. Peter Laird, stepped down as vicar general of the archdiocese on Oct. 3. Former Archbishop Harry Flynn resigned as chair of the board of trustees at the University of St. Thomas on Oct. 17.
The departures follow the exit of the Rev. Kevin McDonough as head of the archdiocese’s child safety program last month. McDonough played a central role in clergy sexual abuse cases as vicar general under Flynn and former Archbishop John Roach.
Nienstedt, who replaced Flynn in 2008, said the archdiocese may have violated its own procedures in handling abuse cases.
