Wright Co. Cancels Contract with Ex-priest

By Billings Gazette
Patrick Simonaitis
December 24, 2013

http://www.necn.com/12/24/13/Wright-Co-cancels-contract-with-ex-pries/landing_nation.html?&apID=74df0947a7104366aad4f264cb7038c3

A former priest who denies accusations of sexual abuse from the 1960s and 1980s has been suspended from teaching sex education for Wright County.

Harry Walsh, 79, has taught birth control, sexual disease prevention and human sexuality for the Wright County Human Services Agency in Buffalo for 16 years.

County Commissioner Charles Borrell told the Star Tribune ( ) the county board voted Monday to cancel Walsh's contract effective Jan. 31, 2014. He said the board decided "without casting any guilt."

"But there was some concern that one of our large school districts — Monticello — said they didn't want him working with their district, so that makes it pretty hard to do the job."

Church documents obtained previously by Minnesota Public Radio show he'd been accused in the 1990s of molesting a 15-year-old girl in Detroit in the mid-1960s and a 12-year-old altar boy in South St. Paul in the early 1980s. The archdiocese contributed to a financial settlement for the girl in 1996. Two archbishops allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011.

Archbishop John Nienstedt asked Pope Benedict last year to defrock Walsh after he learned of the abuse allegations from church archives. Walsh agreed to leave but has denied the allegations.