Priest Sent E-mails Expressing Love to Girl Who Says He Abused Her

By Tony Kennedy And David Chanen
Star Tribune
October 18, 2013

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/228208861.html

[the emails]

In e-mails sent from Rome, he expressed his love and affection for teen girl he is accused of sexually abusing. His lawyer said claims were “discredited.”

The University of St. Thomas priest accused of sexual contact with a young girl expressed love and affection for her in e-mails he sent her from Rome when she was 14 and 15 years old.

“Be really sure that I love you lots and lots and never think of you without a smile coming to my mind,” the Rev. Michael J. Keating wrote in one of at least 19 e-mails made public Thursday on the website of her attorney, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul. Anderson said the writings were presented to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis seven years ago in a church review of his client’s sexual abuse claims, but officials disregarded them.

The e-mails, which the girl’s mother has described as “quite seductive,” were part of the case the girl’s family brought to church authorities in 2006. The church sided with Keating, and the woman maintained a public silence until she sued Keating last week, alleging three years of harmful sexual contact that caused her deep psychological trauma.

The archdiocese responded Thursday with a statement supporting the St. Paul police’s call for victims to first report clergy sexual abuse to law enforcement.