MINNESOTA
LaCrosse Tribune
Former Diocese of Winona priest describes encounter with bishop, concerns about Adamson abuse
By Jerome Christenson Winona Daily News
WINONA, Minn. — A former priest of the Diocese of Winona said Thursday he was literally shown the door when he told Bishop Edward Fitzgerald that the Rev. Thomas Adamson was sexually abusing boys in Caledonia, Minn.
Jim Fitzpatrick, a Caledonia native and priest for the diocese from 1963 to 1973, said he was assigned to the Winona Cathedral and Cotter High School when parents from his hometown came to Winona to ask what he could do about what Adamson was doing to boys in Caledonia.
Fitzpatrick said he would talk with the bishop, but when he went to Fitzgerald and related what the parents told him about their sons and about 15 other boys, Fitzgerald told him he would deal with his priests and showed him out of his office.
Fitzpatrick described his encounter with the bishop in a news conference Thursday in St. Paul. Fitzpatrick was to be a witness in the case brought against the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona by James Keenan, claiming he had in 1980-81 been sexually abused by Adamson and that church officials had been aware of Adamson’s history of child sexual abuse.
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