MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
October 18, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A parishioner in Mahtomedi, Minn., warned a top deputy at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2004 that a priest’s computer may have included inappropriate correspondence with a minor.
In a letter to then-vicar general Kevin McDonough, parishioner Kate Ternus described her concerns about the contents of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley’s computer. Her family received Shelley’s used computer in 2004, and the archdiocese later determined it contained “borderline illegal” pornography.
The letter dated Sept. 17, 2004 mentions a local Catholic high school and could indicate for the first time that Shelley’s behavior may have gone beyond pornography. It includes the first name of the person with whom Shelley corresponded and raised concerns that that person might be Shelley’s “boyfriend.”
“What if [the individual] is a freshman soccer player? What if he’s a recent graduate of St. Jude School?” Ternus wrote in the letter. “What if this actually is more than a matter of questionable taste? It feels like peeling an onion as layer after layer comes away.”
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