Attorney: 4 Top Catholics Bear "Criminal Responsibility"

Minnesota Public Radio
November 12, 2013

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/11/12/daily-circuit-archdiocese

How does the unfolding drama at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis fit with other stories around the country? (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

An attorney who represents victims of child sex abuse named four officials in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who he thinks bear criminal responsibility for failing to report abuse of children by priests.

Mike Finnegan, an attorney with Jeff Anderson and Associates, said the law in Minnesota and across the country requires church officials to notify authorities of even the suspicion of child sex abuse.

"They do have a criminal responsibility under our criminal laws here in Minnesota and in every state across the country to report any suspicions of child sex abuse," Finnegan said. "As soon as they have a suspicion of child sex abuse, under law they are required to report that."

He said that reports by MPR News made clear, in his view, that "the archbishop, the top official, and his lieutenant — any of them that knew and had a suspicion about child sex abuse — could face criminal responsibility.

"I think they are definitely criminally responsible: Archbishop [John] Nienstedt, [former] Vicar General Peter Laird, [former] Vicar General Kevin McDonough, former Archbishop Harry Flynn: all four of those men, I think, face criminal responsibility for their failure to report child sex abuse."

Over the past two months, a series of investigative reports by MPR News has found that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has kept quiet for decades about abusive priests who might have posed a danger to children or vulnerable adults. It has moved priests from job to job and made extra payments to offending priests who took retirement. It has failed to consistently report to parishioners or the authorities what it knew about clergymen with histories of troubled or illegal sexual behavior.

On Monday, MPR reported that a priest known to have sexually abused children was quietly moved around through parishes in the state.