Clergy Sex Abuse Victims Urge Minnesotans to Report Sex Abuse Claims

By Leslie Dyste
KSTP
October 6, 2013

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3183252.shtml


Clergy sex abuse victims passed out fliers to parishioners outside the Cathedral of St. Paul on Sunday. The group called SNAP urged people to report sex abuse claims.

They also want prosecutors to open investigations into the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

This comes after a former employee of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement Saturday calling for a "comprehensive, external review" of priest files.

   Jennifer Haselberger also asked Archbishop John Nienstedt to "make public the list of clergy who have been determined to have engaged in acts of sexual misconduct," as well as those who could "reasonably be assumed to pose a threat to children and young people."

   "Until this occurs, I do not believe that it can be said that the Archdiocese is honoring its promise to protect," she said in the statement.

   A spokesman for the archdiocese declined comment when reached by The Associated Press on Saturday.

  Haselberger worked at the archdiocese from 2008 to last April, when she resigned from her job as chancellor for canonical affairs because of concerns about the way sexual abuse allegations were handled. Tom Wieser, an attorney for the archdiocese, has called Haselberger a "disgruntled former employee."

   She has been at the center of an investigation about pornography on one priest's computer. She said the archdiocese failed to report what she believed to be child pornography to police, so she went to authorities herself. An attorney for the archdiocese said Friday that neither police investigators nor a computer forensics expert found evidence to support her allegations.

   An attorney for the priest also said the computer contained no child pornography.

   In a statement Friday, the archdiocese said it has a zero tolerance for sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults.