MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer
ST. PAUL — Two women who say a Catholic priest abused them as girls in Willmar said Monday that they are suing to prevent others from living through what they have endured most of their lives.
“I just felt so dirty all of those years,” Lori Stoltz said as she and Kim Schmit went public with allegations that the Rev. David Roney sexually abused them in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he was a priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Willmar.
“It was the church that was hiding him,” said Jan Hazen, Schmit’s mother.
“It is a seed that grows and grows…” Schmit said of the problems abuse causes. “Somebody shouldn’t have to go through that.”
Schmit and Stoltz are two of about a half-dozen women who have filed lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm claiming that the Rev. David Roney sexually abused them when he was a priest in southern and western Minnesota.
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