BishopAccountability.org

Former priest at the heart of Catholic Church sex scandal in Minnesota dies

By Mary Lynn Smith
Star Tribune
March 5, 2019

http://strib.mn/2IV2ZcH

Former priest Thomas Adamson, who was accused of molesting boys, leaves “a legacy of pain and sorrow,” attorney Jeff Anderson said.

Removed from ministry in 1985 and the priesthood in 2009, Thomas Adamson lived out his final days in Rochester. He died last week at age 85.

As a Catholic priest, Thomas Adamson won the trust of the boys he coached and others he came to know in the parishes he served from southern Minnesota to the Twin Cities.

But by the time he was ousted from the ministry after more than 25 years, he admitted to molesting 10 boys and was accused of sexually abusing dozens more.

It was the cases against Adamson that soon exposed a sex abuse scandal involving hundreds of priests, even more victims and a coverup by the church.

Removed from ministry in 1985 and the priesthood in 2009, he lived out his final days in Rochester. He died last week at age 85.

“Even though he has passed, there’s a legacy of pain and sorrow,” said Twin Cities attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anderson began to uncover the sex abuse scandal when he filed suit on behalf of one of Adamson’s victims, “John Doe 1,” in 1983.

His parents came to Anderson in 1982 after learning their son had been raped by Adamson years before. They went to the archdiocese but were ignored, Anderson said. The parents were bewildered and heartbroken.

After Anderson filed suit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, other suits followed.

“I pulled on the string and the scandal and coverup unraveled,” he said Tuesday. “It was the beginning of a revelation of the peril that priests posed that Adamson was emblematic of — and of the practice employed by the bishops in concealing it.”

In a court deposition, Adamson admitted to abusing at least 10 boys as he was moved from parish to parish from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was accused of abusing at least 37 children before he was removed from ministry.

Adamson testified that he met his first victims around 1961 while coaching basketball at St. Adrian High School in Adrian, Minn., about 20 miles west of Worthington. He said he admitted the abuse to the bishop of the Winona Diocese as early as 1964 but no action was taken to remove him from ministry or to warn parents or children.

Outwardly, he was an affectionate and caring authority figure, said Anderson, who has represented clergy abuse cases against the archdiocese for more than 30 years.

“He used that power and position to satisfy his own needs,” Anderson said. “That made him a deeply flawed man and a very dangerous predator. … He was given access and opportunity time and time again.”

In his testimony, Adamson acknowledged he abused teen boys in school gymnasiums, his car and his home. He remembered the names of some boys and not others.

Anderson named Adamson in more than 20 lawsuits. About a half dozen of those cases are still pending and will continue despite Adamson’s death.

Thirty-five years after Anderson filed the first lawsuit against Adamson and the church, a bankruptcy judge in the fall of 2018 approved a $210 million settlement between the archdiocese and more than 400 survivors. It was one of the largest such settlements in the country. For the survivors, it brought the end to a critical chapter in their ordeal.

Since those first lawsuits were filed, Anderson said the church has made changes to protect children, some of them major improvements.

Anderson has previously said the archdiocese has become one of the safest in the country.

“But not as safe as it could be,” he said Tuesday. “The [church] is far from where it needs to be. Most of the changes are superficial, sporadic and inconsistent.”

In a statement Tuesday night, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said the archdiocese will never stop working to create and maintain safe environments in parishes, schools and communities. “The abuse of children must never be tolerated and it is incumbent upon each of us to do all we can to prevent it,” the statement said.

Adamson, who died Feb. 25, was buried after private services.

Contact: mlsmith@startribune.com




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.