MINNESOTA
Minnesota SNAP
Archdiocese delayed 9 months before answering abuse complaint
And the letter “outs” another local predator priest for the first time
Even now, church officials keep identity of child molesting cleric hidden
“Those responsible should be harshly and publicly punished,” SNAP says
Group also wants archbishop to “come clean” about all child molesting clerics
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will disclose a letter from a high-ranking archdiocesan staffer that
—“outs” a predator priest for the first time,
—admits he has molested several children, and
—shows that it took church officials almost a year to reply to an abuse report.
The victims will also blast Twin Cities Catholic officials for keeping the predator’s name secret, even now, and push the archbishop to
– severely discipline at least two local church staff for their callousness and secrecy in this case and
– disclose the names of every child molesting clerics in the archdiocese and permanently post their names on his website.
–beg every person who saw, suspected and suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Minnesota (especially current and ex-Catholic employees) to come forward, call police, protect others and start healing.
WHEN
TODAY, Monday, Oct. 7 at 2:00 p.m.
WHERE
Outside the Catholic headquarters (‘chancery office,’) 226 Summit Ave. (corner of Selby) St. Paul, MN
WHO
Two-three clergy sex abuse victims who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a Wayzata MN man who is the organization’s state director, a Missouri man who is the organization’s national director, and a Plymouth MN man who waited nine months for a reply from top archdiocesan staffers
WHY
In Nov. 2010, abuse victim Frank Meuers of Plymouth MN wrote to a high-ranking archdiocesan staffer reporting that he had been molested as a child by a priest. No church official, however, replied to Meuers until Aug. 2011, more than nine months later.
Meuers wrote to Dennis McGrath, the long-time head of the archdiocesan public relations team, who passed the letter along to Fr. Kevin McDonough, the then-second-in-command of the archdiocese and the staffer who was assigned to deal with clergy sexual abuse.
The offender is Fr. Rudolph Henrich. In his reply to Meuers, Fr. McDonough admitted that Fr. Rudolph Henrich is guilty, writing “I have addressed meetings at (a) parish (where Fr. Henrich worked) and spoken with several individual who were abuse by him.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.