The list: Archdiocese names priests credibly accused of sexual abuse

By Sasha Aslanian, Madeleine Baran, Molly Bloom, Mike Cronin, Meg Martin, Eric Ringham, Tom Scheck and Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio
Dec. 5, 2013
Archdiocesan leaders released the names of priests Thursday who it said have had "substantiated claims" of sexually abusing children leveled against them. Seven of the priests named in today's release were not previously known by the public as abusers. (Photo collage by Regina McCombs/MPR News)




The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has released the names of 30 priests it believes sexually abused children between 1950 and 2013.

Betrayed By Silence: An MPR News investigation

Explore the full investigation Clergy abuse, cover-up and crisis in the Twin Cities Catholic church

• Related: Archdiocese's list shows it kept secret seven priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children

The archdiocese also released the names of four other priests who had been included on an earlier list, but church officials now say those four should not have been included. A Ramsey County judge ordered the archdiocese Monday to release a list of 33 priests that had been sealed since 2009.

• MPR News investigation: Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis under scrutiny

Seven of the priests named were not previously known to the public as accused abusers. Five of those seven are still living. About one-third of the priests on the list are dead.

The accused priests have served at nearly half — 92, in total — of the 188 parishes in the archdiocese, according to an email sent to priests by vicar general Rev. Charles Lachowitzer, the archbishop's top deputy.

The disclosure comes three days after Ramsey County Judge John Van de North ordered the archdiocese to release the names of all the priests on a sealed list of clergy with credible allegations of child sexual abuse against them. The 33 names had been disclosed to attorneys in a 2009 clergy sexual abuse lawsuit, but a judge ordered they remain private.

The number of names on the original list — 33 in total — originated in 2004 when the Rev. Kevin McDonough, then second in command at the archdiocese, told researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice that 33 priests in the archdiocese were "known to have credible allegations of the abuse of minors." The John Jay group had been commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to study clergy sexual abuse in the United States.

A note about the list

This list of priests who have been "credibly accused" is just that: A list. The document released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis contains little or no information about crimes, accusations, legal dispositions or settlements. Nor does the archdiocese say what constitutes a "credible accusation." MPR News has done what it could to supplement the list with information from church documents, media reports and the public record.

The archdiocese's list of credibly accused priests

Click on the names below to learn more about each priest.
If you're using Internet Explorer 8 or earlier, see the full list, with details, here.

  • Rev. Thomas Adamson

    Rev. Thomas Adamson
    • Rev. Thomas Adamson

    Rev. Thomas Adamson

    Adamson took a leave of absence in 1984. Still a priest. Lives in Rochester.

    Adamson, 80, has been accused of molesting dozens of boys. He was a defendant in the first lawsuit filed in 2013 under a new Minnesota law that allows victims of child sexual abuse to bring claims decades later. Adamson has been the focus of several lawsuits but has never faced criminal charges. Church documents reviewed by MPR News show he admitted the abuse and showed little remorse.


    Assignment history

    May 31, 1958: Ordained
    1958: Assistant priest at St. Casimir and instructor at Cotter High School (Winona)
    1961: Assistant principal and assistant pastor St. Adrian High School and parish (Adrian)
    1963: Assistant priest at St. John and superintendent of Catholic schools (Caledonia)
    1964: Assistant principal, Lourdes High School (Rochester)
    1966: Administrator, St. Clement (Hammond)
    1967: Chaplain at Lea College and assistant pastor at St. Theodore (Albert Lea)
    1968: Assistant principal at Lourdes High School (Rochester), administrator at St. Lawrence O'Toole (Fountain) and St. Killian (Wykoff)
    1971: Pastor, St. Francis (Rochester)
    1975: St. Leo the Great (St. Paul)
    1976: Associate priest, St. Boniface (St. Bonifacius) and St. Thomas Aquinas (St. Paul Park)
    1979: Administrator, Immaculate Conception (Columbia Heights)
    1981: Risen Savior (Apple Valley)
    1984: Leave of absence

    Photo courtesy of the Keenan family

  • Rev. John Brown

    Rev. John Brown
    • Rev. John Brown

    Rev. John Brown

    Prohibited from ministry. Still a priest. Lives in St. Paul.

    A man accused the Rev. John Brown, 93, in July of sexually abusing him during the 1960s.

    David Pususta told MPR News last summer that Brown sexually abused him several times. Brown admitted to looking at boys' genitalia in an MPR News interview.

    Assignment history

    Ordained June 5, 1948
    1948: Associate priest, St. Timothy (Maple Lake)
    1949: Associate priest, Sacred Heart (Robbinsdale)
    1950: Associate priest, St. John (St. Paul)
    1951: Associate priest (Hopkins)
    1956: Chaplain, U.S. Army
    1958: Associate priest, St. Mary (Le Center)
    1960: Temporary administrator, St. Mary (Le Center)
    1960: Administrator, St. Mary (Waverly)
    1963: Pastor, St. Mary (Waverly)
    1964: Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua (Minneapolis)
    1966: Pastor, Church of the Immaculate Conception of Marysburg (Madison Lake)
    1970: Pastor, Sacred Heart (Faribault)
    1978: Pastor, St. Peter Claver (St. Paul)
    1981: Pastor, Annunciation (Hazelwood)
    Retired on July 31, 1990.
    Resigned in June 2002.

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer

    Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer
    • Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer

    Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer

    Died in 2004 at age 95; was still a priest.

    Cosmas Dahlheimer was named in lawsuits between 1990 and 1994, accused of sexually abusing four children.

    He was one of more than a dozen priests and monks St. John's Abbey placed under restriction after accusations of sexual abuse, according to several newspaper reports. Dahlheimer was accused of abusing a minor at St. Augustine in St. Cloud, and three additional minors at St. Bernard in St. Paul, according to attorney Jeff Anderson.


    Assignment history (partial)

    June 6, 1936: Ordained
    1973: Assistant priest, St. Bernard (St. Paul)
    1935-1987: Dahlheimer served "in a dozen assignments... including teacher, novice master, associate pastor and pastor," according to victims' attorney Jeffrey Anderson.
    Feb. 21, 2004: Died at age 95

  • Rev. Gilbert Desutter

    Rev. Gilbert DeSutter
    • Rev. Gilbert Desutter

    Gilbert DeSutter

    Prohibited from ministry as of April 2013; remains a priest. Lives in Mesa, Ariz.

    Two lawsuits named the Rev. Gilbert DeSutter, 85, as having sexually abused two boys, according to court records and news reports.

    The victim in a 1999 lawsuit accused DeSutter of "unpermitted and harmful sexual contact" in 1978 or 1979 when the plaintiff was 12 or 13. Archdiocesan leaders ordered DeSutter in 2002 to cease practicing any ministry due, in part, to complaints they received about his behavior with minors, according to internal church documents reviewed by MPR News.


    Assignment history

    1954: Associate priest, St. Mark (St. Paul)
    1956: Associate priest, St. Mary (St. Paul)
    1956: Associate priest, Annunciation, (Minneapolis)
    1964: Associate priest, St. Peter (Richfield)
    1968: Spiritual director, St. John Vianney Seminary (St. Paul)
    1973: Pastor, Immaculate Conception (Faribault)
    1976: Pastor, St. William (Fridley)
    1983: Pastor, St. Michael (Prior Lake)
    Retired June 1, 1993

    Photo courtesy Jeff Anderson

  • Rev. Gilbert Gustafson

    Rev. Gilbert Gustafson
    • Gilbert Gustafson

    Rev. Gilbert Gustafson

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in St. Paul.

    The Rev. Gilbert Gustafson, 62, pleaded guilty and was convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy.

    He was sentenced to six months in jail. But a fellow priest, the Rev. Michael Kennedy, stated in a 2004 deposition that he told archdiocesan officials that Gustafson had sexually abused "eight or nine" victims. Three were teenage girls, and the rest were boys who were "11 or 12," Kennedy testified.


    Assignment history

    1977: Associate priest, St. Mary of the Lake (White Bear Lake)
    1982: Associate director, Continuing Education & Spiritual Growth for Priests, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (St. Paul)
    1982: Student, Catholic University (Washington D.C.)
    1983: Pro tem, Chancery, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (St. Paul)
    1988: In residence, St. Peter (Mendota)
    Years unknown: Board member, Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute at St. John's Abbey (Collegeville)
    Resigned in 2002

  • Rev. Louis Heitzer

    • Rev. Louis Joseph Heitzer

    Deceased. Died Nov. 24, 1969, at age 55.

    A man in 2002 told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas that the Rev. Joseph Heitzer sexually abused him when he was 11, according to Minnesota news reports. "There's some indication that leaders of the archdiocese knew about allegations that Father Heitzer abused some children," one news story quotes then-archdiocesan Vicar General Rev. Kevin McDonough as saying, after he'd heard Heitzer's story.

    Internal church documents reviewed by MPR News describe Heitzer as 'perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be a part of this Archdiocese' and alleged that "he abused boys every place he went."

    Assignment history

    1940: Ordained
    1942: Associate priest, Most Holy Trinity (Winsted)
    1944: Associate priest, St. Andrew (Fairfax)
    1944: Associate pastor, Assumption (St. Paul)
    1945: Associate priest, Holy Redeemer (Marshall)
    1945: Associate priest, St. Mary Help of Christians (Sleepy Eye)
    1948: Associate priest, St. Joseph (Waconia)
    1948: Associate priest, St. Aloysius (Olivia)
    1950: Administrator, Sacred Heart (Franklin)
    1950: St. Patrick (Birch Coulee)
    1954: Pastor, St. Joseph (Rosen)
    1955: Pastor, St. Michael (Gaylord)
    1955: St. Francis de Sales (Winthrop)
    1956: Pastor, St. Luke (Clearwater)
    1958: Pastor, St. Scholastica (New Prague)
    1966: Associate priest, St. Richard (Richfield)
    1967: St. Peter (Forest Lake)
    1968: On sick leave
    1969: Removed from ministry

  • Rev. Rudolph Henrich

    Rev. Rudolph Henrich

    • Rev. Rudolph Henrich

    Deceased. Died July 23, 1992, at age 86.

    The Rev. Rudolph Henrich sexually abused several minors, according to a 2011 letter one of those victims said in October that he received from the archdiocese.

    The Rev. Kevin McDonough, former archdiocesan vicar general, wrote that he had "spoken with several individuals who were abused by (Henrich)," that victim said in October. Church leaders described Henrich as one of many "priests with known abuse histories," according to internal archdiocesan documents reviewed by MPR News.


    Assignment history

    1933: Ordained
    1933: Associate priest, St. James (St. Paul)
    1937: Associate priest, Most Holy Trinity (Winsted)
    1938: Associate pastor, St. Mark (Shakopee)
    1938: Chaplain, State Training School for Boys (Red Wing)
    1942: Chaplain, U.S. Navy
    1946: Chaplain, State Training School for Boys (Red Wing)
    1952: Chaplain, U.S. armed forces
    1954: Pastor, St. Boniface (Stewart)
    1957: Pastor, St. Margaret Mary (Golden Valley)
    1976: Retired and permanently removed from ministry

  • Rev. Francis Hoefgen

    Rev. Francis Hoefgen

    • Rev. Francis Hoefgen

    Removed from the priesthood in 2012. Lives in Columbia Heights.

    Francis Hoefgen, 63, was accused of sexually assaulting a boy from 1989 to 1992 when the boy was 10 to 13 years old, according to a lawsuit filed in November.


    Assignment history

    1980: St. Boniface (Cold Spring)
    1985-1992: Associate priest, St. Boniface (St. Paul)
    1984-1994: Confessor, Villa Maria Center (Frontenac)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 2002
    Left Order of St. Benedict, St. John's Abbey, and removed from priesthood in 2012

    Photo courtesy Jeff Anderson

  • Rev. Richard Jeub

    Rev. Richard Jeub

    • Rev. Richard Jeub

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in Crosby.

    Stories in Twin Cities newspapers reported at least three women said the Rev. Richard Jeub, 73, had some type of sexual contact with them when they were teenagers.

    One woman said that Jeub in 1969 "kissed her, touched her inappropriately and repeatedly made remarks about her body while she was a 'naïve' 15-year-old." She accepted a settlement offer from the archdiocese.

    Two other young women said Jeub kissed them when they were teenagers, according to internal archdiocesan documents reviewed by MPR News.


    Assignment history

    1966: Associate priest, St. Joseph (Hopkins)
    1967: Associate priest, Our Lady of Grace (Edina)
    1970: Associate priest, St. Mark (St. Paul)
    1976: Associate priest, Christ the King (Minneapolis)
    1978: Chaplain, Methodist Hospital (St. Louis Park) and Fairview Southdale Hospital (Edina)
    1981: Pastor, St. Kevin (Minneapolis)
    1990-1996: Leave of absence
    1996: Associate priest, Sacred Heart (Robbinsdale)
    1997: Associate priest, Sacred Heart/St. Lawrence (Faribault)
    2000: Associate priest, St. Rose of Lima (Roseville)
    Retired and permanently removed from ministry in 2002

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Dennis Kampa

    Rev. Dennis Kampa
    • Rev. Dennis Kampa

    Rev. Dennis Kampa

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in Victoria.

    After the 2002 Charter, church leaders and the Rev. Dennis Kampa, 81, entered into an agreement that restricted the priest's behavior.

    An archdiocesan official stated that Kampa had difficulty complying with that agreement, according to internal church documents reviewed by MPR News.


    Assignment history

    Ordained March 9, 1968
    1968: Associate priest, Immaculate Conception (Faribault)
    1969: Associate priest, St. Mark (St. Paul)
    1972: Associate priest, St. Joseph (West St. Paul)
    1974: Associate priest, Holy Family (St. Louis Park)
    1976: Associate priest, Holy Trinity (South St. Paul)
    1980: Pastor, St. Vincent de Paul (Osseo)
    1989: Administrator, St. Michael (Pine Island)
    1989: Administrator, St. Michael (Kenyon)
    1990: Pastor, St. Michael (Pine Island)
    Retired in 2002
    Permanently removed from ministry in 2003

    Photo: Getty Images/File

  • Rev. Robert Kapoun

    Rev. Robert Kapoun
    • Rev. Robert Kapoun

    Rev. Robert Kapoun

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in Cold Spring and Palmetto, Fla.

    The Rev. Robert Kapoun, 75, has admitted to sexually abusing at least nine boys.

    Kapoun molested them in saunas, rectories and the home where he now lives in Cold Spring, Minn. Five victims sued Kapoun for sexually abusing them during the 1980s and '90s.


    Assignment history

    1964: Ordained
    1964: Associate priest, Holy Redeemer (Montgomery)
    1967: Associate priest, St. Kevin (Minneapolis)
    1971: Associate priest, St. Raphael (Crystal)
    1974: Chaplain, Home of the Good Shepherd (St. Paul)
    1976: Medical leave
    1977: Pastor, St. Patrick (Cedar Lake) and administrator, St. Catherine (Spring Lake)
    1984: Pastor, St. Scholastica (Heidelberg) and administrator, St. Joseph (Lexington)
    1991: Pastor, St. Thomas (St. Thomas)
    1996: Resigned
    1998: Retired
    2002: Permanently removed from ministry

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Jerome Kern

    Rev. Jerome Kern
    • Rev. Jerome Kern

    Rev. Jerome Kern

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in Silver Bay.

    Three men accused the Rev. Jerome Kern, 72, of sexually abusing them, according to court records and news reports.

    One victim sued Kern in 1993 for sexually abusing him and the archdiocese settled in 1995. A news story reported that the archdiocese began a file on Kern in 1969 after the priest had been accused of grabbing the genitals of two boys.

    Church leaders identified Kern as a priest whose child sexual abuse accusations were in dispute, according to internal archdiocesan documents reviewed by MPR News.


    Assignment history

    1966: Ordained
    1967: Associate priest, St. Mark (St. Paul)
    1970: Associate priest, Our Lady of Grace (Edina)
    1975: Administrator, Our Lady of Grace (Edina)
    1976: Co-pastor, Immaculate Heart of Mary (Minnetonka)
    1994: Sabbatical (St. Paul Seminary)
    1995: Temporary administrator, St. Dominic (Northfield)
    1995: Associate priest, St. Peter (Forest Lake)
    2002: Permanently removed from ministry

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Lee Krautkremer

    Lee Krautkremer
    • Lee Krautkremer

    Lee Krautkremer

    No longer a priest. The pope granted his request to leave the priesthood on Sept. 1, 2006. Lives in Minneapolis.

    Lee Krautkremer, 73, admitted in a deposition to sexually abusing five boys, two at a Boy Scout camp, during his 40 years as a priest.

    Church leaders sent Krautkremer in 1987 to the St. Luke Institute, a Maryland-based facility that provides treatment for priests with sexual problems. After that, he also enrolled in a human sexuality offenders program at the University of Minnesota for more than three years.


    Assignment history

    1966: Ordained
    1966: Associate priest, Immaculate Conception (Faribault)
    1966: Associate priest, St. Peter (North St. Paul)
    1967: Associate priest, St. Margaret Mary (Golden Valley)
    1968: Associate priest, St. Michael (St. Michael)
    1970: Associate priest, St. Michael (West St. Paul)
    1975: Associate priest, St. Peter (Forest Lake)
    1976: Director, Boy Scouts of America, Minneapolis-based chapter
    1978: Pastor, St. Joseph (Lino Lakes)
    1984: Pastor, St. Michael (St. Michael)
    1987: Temporary administrator, Chancery (St. Paul)
    1987: Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Minneapolis)
    1987: Chaplain, North Memorial Hospital (Robbinsdale)
    April 1, 2002: Resigned
    April 15, 2002: Retired
    2002: Permanently removed from ministry
    Sept. 1, 2006: The pope granted his request to leave the priesthood

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Ronan Charles Liles

    • Rev. Ronan C. Liles (also known as Charles Liles)

    Retired Dominican priest. Archdiocesan officials believe he died sometime before 2006.

    A lawsuit filed in the late 1990s accused the Rev. Ronan Liles, 71, of sexually abusing two brothers. The boys met Liles at a Boy Scout camp in 1969, when they were about 11 and 12 years old.

    The brothers claimed Liles molested them and tried to rape them, and said the abuse progressed well into their teen years.

    Hennepin County District Court threw out the lawsuit because of the statute of limitations - a decision that was upheld by the state appeals court.


    Assignment history

    1969: St. Albert the Great (Minneapolis)
    1978: Dominican Fathers provincial office (Chicago)
    1979: Dominican Fathers and Brothers, Southern Dominican Province (New Orleans)
    1982: Leave of absence
    1985: "Dismissed from order and dispensed from vows," according to archdiocesan officials.

  • Rev. Alfred Longley

    • Rev. Alfred Longley

    Deceased. Died Feb. 3, 1974, at 60.

    Not much is publicly known about Longley's time in ministry.


    Assignment history

    1939: Ordained
    1939: Associate priest, Immaculate Conception (Faribault)
    1942: Chaplain, U.S. Army
    1952: Pastor, St. Richard (Richfield)
    1962: Chaplain, Riverside Medical Center (Minneapolis)
    1964: Pastor, St. Jude of the Lake (Mahtomedi)
    1968: Permanently removed from ministry

  • Rev. Brennan Maiers

    • Rev. Brennan Maiers

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in Collegeville.

    The Rev. Brennan Maiers, 77, is a member of the Order of St. Benedict, St. John's Abbey. He was permanently removed from ministry in 2002.


    Assignment history

    1983-1990: Pastor, St. Bernard (St. Paul)

    2002: Permanently removed from ministry

    Photo courtesy of Jeff Anderson

  • Rev. Timothy McCarthy

    • Rev. Timothy McCarthy

    Remains a priest. Prohibited from ministry. Lives in St. Paul

    A court found the Rev. Timothy McCarthy, 67, guilty of conspiracy to defraud the IRS out of more than $1 million in 2009, according to a Twin Cities news report.

    Another story reported that McCarthy was cleared of an accusation that he had had criminal sexual contact with an inmate at the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center in 2001.


    Assignment history

    1973: Associate priest, St. Leo (St. Paul)
    1974: Associate priest, All Saints (Lakeville)
    1977: Administrator, St. Andrew (Elysian)
    1982: Associate priest, St. Peter Claver (St. Paul) and also served on special assignment
    1984: Associate priest, Guardian Angels (Lake Elmo)
    1984: Associate priest, St. Joseph (Lino Lakes)
    1986: Pastor, Holy Redeemer (Maplewood)
    Resigned, 1991

  • McGrath

    Rev. John McGrath
    • McGrath

    Rev. John McGrath

    Died in 1995 at age 63.

    Two women filed lawsuits in 1993 accusing the Rev. John McGrath of sexually abusing and exploiting them on church grounds at the St. Helena parish in Minneapolis, according to a Twin Cities news report.


    Assignment history

    1957: Associate priest, Nativity (St. Paul)
    1965: Associate priest, St. Helena (Minneapolis)
    1969: Associate priest, St. Andrew (St. Paul)
    1970: Faculty, University of St. Thomas (St. Paul)
    1976: Pastor, Sacred Heart (Robbinsdale)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 1995

    Photo courtesy of Jeff Anderson

  • Palmitessa

    Rev. Paul Palmitessa
    • Palmitessa

    Rev. Paul Palmitessa

    Remains a priest; no longer in ministry. Lives in El Cajon, Calif.

    The Rev. Paul Palmitessa, 82, retired in 1988 and performed limited ministry until 2012, according to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.


    Assignment history

    1956: Associate priest, Cathedral of St. Paul (St. Paul)
    1968: Pastor, Holy Redeemer (St. Paul)
    1979: Pastor, St. Paul (Zumbrota)
    1979: Administrator, St. Mary (Bellechester)
    1982: Diocese of San Diego
    Retired, 1998
    Performed limited ministry until 2012

    Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society

  • Pinkosh

    Rev. Joseph Pinkosh
    • Pinkosh

    Rev. Joseph Pinkosh

    Absent from ministry without permission. Resigned in 1992. Lives in Columbia Heights.

    The Rev. Joseph Pinkosh is 70. Not much is publicly known about his time in ministry


    Assignment history

    1969: Associate priest, St. Joseph (Hopkins)
    1972: Associate priest, St. Wenceslaus (New Prague)
    1974: Associate priest, Holy Cross (Minneapolis)
    1981: Pastor, St. Patrick (Shieldsville)
    Absent from ministry without permission
    Resigned, 1992

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Francis Reynolds

    • Rev. Francis Reynolds

    Died in 1988. He was 65 or 66.

    A woman sued the Rev. Francis Reynolds in 1991 and claimed he sexually abused her from about 1972 to 1984, according to a Twin Cities news report.


    Assignment history

    1955: Associate priest, Maternity of Mary (St. Paul)
    1957: Associate priest, St. Patrick (St. Paul)
    1964: Associate priest, Visitation (Minneapolis)
    1966: Associate priest, St. Margaret Mary (Golden Valley)
    1968: Pastor, St. Francis Xavier (Buffalo)
    1985: Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Minneapolis)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 1987

  • Skluzacek

    Rev. Richard Skluzacek
    • Skluzacek

    Rev. Richard Francis Skluzacek

    Deceased. Died on Feb. 25, 2012 at age 79.

    The Rev. Richard Francis Skluzacek was accused of fondling a 16-year-old boy in 1975, according to internal documents reviewed by MPR News.

    Skluzacek agreed to have restrictions placed upon him, according to those documents.


    Assignment history

    1957: Associate priest, St. Stanislaus (St. Paul)
    1964: Administrator, St. Stanislaus (St. Paul)
    1966: Associate priest, St. Stephen (Anoka)
    1967: Associate priest, Holy Redeemer (Montgomery)
    1968: Administrator, Holy Trinity (Veseli)
    1970: Administrator, St. Nicholas (New Market) and pastor, Holy Trinity (Veseli)
    1974: Pastor, Corpus Christi (St. Paul)
    1978: Pastor, St. Joseph (Hopkins)
    1990: Chaplain, V.A. Medical Center (Minneapolis)
    1998: Retired
    2005: Permanently removed from ministry

  • Stevens

    Rev. Michael Stevens
    • Stevens

    Rev. Michael Stevens

    Remains a priest; prohibited from ministry. Lives in Roseville.

    The Rev. Michael Stevens, 58, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree on Nov. 25, 1987, in Anoka County.

    Stevens brought a mentally disabled boy to a hotel room to see him naked and fondle him over his clothes.

    Stevens was an archdiocesan staff member who worked on church computers until 2002.


    Assignment history

    1980: Associate priest, St. Michael (Prior Lake)
    1982: Associate priest, Epiphany (Coon Rapids)
    1988: In residence, St. Mark (St. Paul)
    1988: In residence, St. Adalbert (St. Paul)
    2002: Resigned

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Stitts

    Rev. Thomas Stitts
    • Stitts

    Rev. Thomas Stitts

    Died on Oct. 10, 1985, at age 50.

    Two men accused the Rev. Thomas Stitts of sexually abusing them in the 1960s, according to a lawsuit filed in 2010.

    An archdiocesan spokesman at the time said, "We reject any claims of 'cover-up' in the strongest possible terms."


    Assignment history

    1962: Ordained
    1962: Associate priest, St. Matthew (St. Paul)
    1965: Associate priest, Our Lady of Grace (Edina)
    1966: Associate priest, Guardian Angels (Hastings)
    1970: Associate priest, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul)
    1970: Administrator, St. Leo (St. Paul)
    1973: Pastor, St. George (Long Lake)
    1980: Pastor, St. John the Baptist (New Brighton)
    1985: Permanently removed from ministry

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Thurner

    Rev. Robert Thurner
    • Thurner

    Rev. Robert Thurner

    Remains a priest; prohibited from ministry. Lives in Maplewood.

    The Rev. Robert Thurner, 88, admitted in a deposition during a 1991 lawsuit to sexually abusing three boys.

    Thurner also admitted to former Archbishop John Roach and other archdiocesan officials in a 1982 meeting that he had a "brief sexual relationship' with a 16-year-old boy. A woman said Thurner sexually abused her when she was "7 to 8 years old" in "approximately 1984 - 1985,"" according to a lawsuit filed in October.


    Assignment history

    1951: Associate priest, Most Holy Trinity (St. Louis Park)
    1963: Associate priest, St. Luke (St. Paul)
    1967: Pastor, St. Michael (Prior Lake)
    1970: Pastor, St. John the Evangelist (Hopkins)
    1983: Associate priest, St. Joseph (West St. Paul)
    1986: Temporary administrator, St. Edward (Bloomington)
    1986: Pastor, St. Therese (St. Paul)
    Retired, 1991

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Vavra

    Rev. Clarence Vavra
    • Vavra

    Rev. Clarence Vavra

    Remains a priest; restricted from ministry. Lives in New Prague.

    The Rev. Clarence Vavra, 74, admitted in a May 1995 psychological evaluation that he had attempted to anally rape a 9- or 10-year-old boy and that he sexually abused another child on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota during the mid-1970s.

    Church leaders also suspected that Vavra had engaged in sex talk with a convicted multiple-murderer and had a sexual interest in a convicted child rapist. Archdiocesan officials gave the priest payments above his pension in exchange for agreeing to retire early.


    Assignment history

    1965: Associate pastor, St. Rose of Lima (Roseville)
    1969: Chaplain, Minnesota House of Representatives (St. Paul)
    1969: Associate pastor, St. Philip (Minneapolis)
    1970: Associate pastor, St. Peter (North St. Paul)
    1971: Associate pastor, Guardian Angels (Hastings)
    1972: Unassigned/leave of absence

    1973: Associate pastor, St. Matthew (St. Paul)
    1975: Missionary, Rosebud Indian Reservation, S.D.

    1976: Associate pastor, Holy Spirit (St. Paul)
    1977: Pastor, Sacred Heart (Rush City) and administrator, St. Gregory (North Branch)
    1978: Chaplain, Red Wing State Training School (Red Wing), moved to part-time position later that year

    1979: Associate pastor, St. Wenceslaus (New Prague)
    1979: Associate pastor, St. Jerome (Maplewood)
    1981: Pastor, Most Holy Redeemer (Maplewood)
    1986: Temporary assignment, Chancery (St. Paul)
    1987: Temporary assignment, St. Genevieve (Centerville)
    1987: Pastor, St. Nicholas (New Market)
    1992: Temporary administrator, St. Philip (Minneapolis)
    1993: Pastor, St. Philip (Minneapolis)
    1996: Sabbatical to receive inpatient psychological treatment

    1993: Associate priest, Nativity of Mary (Cleveland)
    1997: Associate priest, Most Holy Redeemer (Montgomery) and associate priest, St. Patrick (Shieldsville)
    Removed from ministry and retired in 2003

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Wajda

    Rev. Joseph Wajda
    • Wajda

    Joseph Wajda

    Remains a priest; prohibited from ministry. Lives in Minneapolis.

    Four men accused the Rev. Joseph Wajda, 66, of sexually abusing them when they were boys, according to lawsuits. Wajda denies all accusations that he sexually abused any minors.


    Assignment history

    1973: Parochial vicar, St. Raphael (Crystal)
    1977: Parochial vicar, Immaculate Conception (Columbia Heights)
    1982: Parochial vicar, St. Rose of Lima (Roseville)
    1986: Administrator, St. Joseph (Waconia)
    1986: Administrator, Sts. Peter and Paul (Loretto)
    1986: Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Minneapolis)
    1987: Pastor, St. Andrew (St. Paul)
    1989: Client at St. Luke Institute's treatment program (Suitland, Md.)
    1990: Administrator, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul)
    1990: Parochial vicar, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul)
    1991: Auditor, Metropolitan Tribunal (St. Paul)
    1992: Licentiate of Canon Law, Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.)
    1994: Associate judge, Metropolitan Tribunal (St. Paul)
    1996: Judicial vicar, Metropolitan Tribunal (St. Paul)
    2002: Auditor, Metropolitan Tribunal (St. Paul)
    1985: Permanently removed from ministry

    Photo: The Catholic Spirit

  • Rev. Raymond Walter

    • Raymond Walter

    Deceased. Died in 2003 at age 87 or 88.

    Not much is publicly known atbout Walter's time in ministry.


    Assignment history

    1964-1978, 1981-1989: St. Alphonsus (Brooklyn Center)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 2003

  • Wehmeyer

    Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer
    • Wehmeyer

    Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer

    Remains a priest. Permanently prohibited from ministry. Incarcerated in a Lino Lakes prison.

    The Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, 49, is serving five years in prison after being sentenced for sexually abusing two boys in 2010 and for possession of child pornography. He remains a priest.


    Assignment history

    2001: Parochial vicar, St. Joseph (West St. Paul)
    2006: Parochial administrator, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul)
    2009: Pastor, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul)
    2011: Pastor, Blessed Sacrament (St. Paul) and St. Thomas the Apostle (St. Paul)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 2012

    Photo courtesy Minnesota Department of Corrections

  • Zasacki

    Rev. Robert Zasacki
    • Zasacki

    Rev. Robert Zasacki

    Deceased. Died March 3, 2008 at age 67.

    The Rev. Robert Zasacki admitted to his superiors that he sexually abused at least one minor during the 1970s, according to internal archdiocesan documents reviewed by MPR News.

    When church leaders confronted Zasacki about an accusation from the archdiocese of Newark, N.J., he agreed to resign from ministry. Zasacki "acknowledged other wrongdoing in the 1970s," according to the documents.


    Assignment history

    1979: Entered Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul from Archdiocese of Newarkbr /> 1982: St. Bridget (Lindstrom)
    1983: St. Joseph (Lino Lakes)
    1984: Cathedral of St. Paul (St. Paul)
    1985: Administrator, St. Peter (Forest Lake)
    1987: Pastor, St. Peter (Forest Lake)
    1989: Pastor, Sts. Peter and Joseph (Delano)
    1995: Pastor, Sacred Heart (Robbinsdale)
    2001: Pastor, St. Joseph (Hopkins)
    Permanently removed from ministry in 2002

Clergy included on John Jay list with unsubstantiated claims, according to the archdiocese

  • Corica

    Rev. Eugene Corica
    • Corica

    Rev. Eugene Salvatore Corica

    Still a priest. Absent from ministry without permission as of April 2013. Lives in St. Louis Park.

    MPR News was unable to verify much about Corica's history as a priest. According to archdiocesan records, he quit the priesthood without permission and married a woman in November 1995, archdiocesan records show he resigned from active ministry.


    Assignment history (partial)


    Ordained June 4, 1960
    1974: Associate priest, St. Patrick, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
    1978 or 1979: Pastor, St. Bridget (Minneapolis)
    1978: Co-founder, St. Anthony of Padua Secular Franciscan Fraternity (Minneapolis)

    1983: Associate priest, St. Raphael (Crystal)

    1985: Temporary administrator, Holy Childhood (St. Paul)
    1985: Administrator, Holy Family (St. Louis Park)
    1987: Pastor, Holy Family (St. Louis Park)
    Resigned from active ministry Oct. 13, 1995.

    Photo: The Catholic Bulletin

  • Rev. Robert Loftus

    • Rev. Robert Loftus

    No longer a priest. Removed from the priesthood in 1977. Lives in Minneapolis.

    Archdiocesan officials reported today that Robert Loftus, 82, "was credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a 'young woman' in the early 1970's. We do not have knowledge of the complainant's age at the time of the misconduct.

    " An independent investigator was hired to review the file and advise on whether Loftus should be disclosed as a 'substantiated claim.'

    "To date, the investigator has not determined whether a claim of sexual abuse of a minor was or can be substantiated. The investigation is continuing, and our disclosures will be updated when the investigation is completed."


    Assignment history

    1963: Assistant pastor, St. Stephen (Anoka)
    1966: Assistant pastor, Christ the King (Minneapolis)
    1967: Assistant pastor, St. Mary's Basilica (Minneapolis)
    1971: Pastor, St. Frances Cabrini (Minneapolis)
    1977: Leave of absence

    Removed from priesthood in 1977

  • Ryan

    Rev. Patrick Joseph Ryan
    • Ryan

    Rev. Patrick Joseph Ryan

    Deceased. Died in 1965 at age 72 or 73.

    Tom Mahowald accused the Rev. Patrick Joseph Ryan of sexually assaulting him in 1961, when Mahowald was 11.

    The archdiocese investigated and told Mahowald that it could not substantiate the allegations and stopped making payments to him, according to documents reviewed by MPR News. But Mahowald told MPR News he suffered severe injuries due to Ryan's sexual assault.


    Assignment history

    1919: Associate priest, St. Mary (St. Paul)
    1919: Associate priest, St. Clement (Minneapolis)
    1921: Associate priest, St. Stephen (Minneapolis)
    1922: Associate priest, Immaculate Conception (Faribault)
    1933: Pastor, St. John (Ortonville)

    1943: Pastor, Guardian Angels (Hastings)

  • Rev. Roger Vaughn

    • Rev. Roger Vaughn

    Remains a priest; no longer in ministry. Lives in Yonkers, N.Y.

    The archdiocese released the following statement about the Rev. Roger Vaughn, 65:

    "We have not been able to determine why Roger Vaughn was included in the list provided to the John Jay Commission. There is no record of Vaughn being assigned to ministry or residence in this Archdiocese.

    "He was a priest of the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosiers) until he left the order in 2001. We do not have knowledge of any claims that Vaughn sexually abused a minor in this archdiocese."


    Assignment history

    1977-1980: Crosier Monastery and Seminary (Onamia)
    No longer in ministry as of 2000
    Left the Crosier order in 2001




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