MINNESOTA
Duluth News Tribune
A pair of victims’ rights advocates took Bishop Paul Sirba to task Tuesday for his handling of allegations that Father Cornelius Kelleher had sexual relations with an underage girl during his tenure at St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm.
By: Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune
A pair of victims’ rights advocates took Bishop Paul Sirba to task Tuesday for his handling of allegations that Father Cornelius Kelleher had sexual relations with an underage girl during his tenure at St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm.
David Clohessy, the national executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and Verne Wagner, SNAP’s Northern Minnesota director, maintain that the Duluth diocese failed to follow the U.S. Catholic Church’s own policies when it didn’t notify law enforcement authorities of a report that Kelleher had sexual contact with a minor.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People says: “The Charter acknowledges the role of the public authorities in matters of sexual abuse of minors by clergy in Article 4, which requires dioceses and eparchies to report any and all allegations involving minors to the authorities in accordance with civil law, and to cooperate with those authorities during investigations of these matters. All dioceses and eparchies examined during 2012 included mandated reporter language in their policies and procedures, as applicable.”
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