MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record
Summary of Case: In 1982 the parents of a 15 year-old boy complained to the archdiocese that Gustafson had been sexually abusing their son for five years. Gustafson admitted the abuse, and that he had sexually abused two other boys. He was criminally charged and pleaded guilty to the abuse of the boy whose parents complained. Gustafson was fined $40.00 and sentenced to six months in jail. He served 4 1/2 months of the sentence. In 2000 Gustafson was accused of sexually abusing a girl for five years, beginning in 1977. Gustafson denied abusing her. His accuser in that case sued the archdiocese in 2002, and received a settlement in 2005.The archdiocese allowed him from 1983 on to work as a researcher and assistant in the chancery, to serve on an interfaith board on sexual trauma, and to serve as chaplain at a monastery for cloistered nuns. Gustafson wasn’t removed from ministry until June 2002, when the U.S. bishops adopted a “zero tolerance” policy regarding the sexual abuse of children by clergy. In 2007 he was quoted as saying he was “on leave”. Gustafson may have been involved with a leadership training program at a Minneapolis monastery for nuns in 2010-2011.
Ordained: 1977
Incardinated: St. Paul and Minneapolis
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