MINNESOTA
West Central Tribune
[documents via Jeff Anderson & Associates]
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2013
DON DAVISWEST CENTRAL TRIBUNE
ST. PAUL — Two women who say a Willmar Catholic priest abused them as girls said today they are taking church officials to court to prevent future abuses.
“It was the church that was hiding him,” said Jan Hazen, whose daughter, Kim Schmit, was one of two women who went public with their stories.
“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 Lori 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 western Minnesota.
Roney died in 2003.
St. Paul lawyer Jeff Anderson said his firm has documented 20 cases of Roney abusing girls and boys, about 15 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Willmar. Another half-dozen were abused in the nearby St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Benson, Anderson said.
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