UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
NCR Editorial Staff | Oct. 9, 2013
In June 2012, Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer was removed as a pastor, after the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese received a complaint of child sexual abuse against him. The archdiocese informed the police, and by November Wehmeyer had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys, ages 12 and 14, and possessing child pornography. He is serving a five-year prison sentence.
Ostensibly, the archdiocese had complied promptly and fully with the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the standards for dealing with priests accused of abusing a minor. The archdiocese certainly spun the story that way. That may have been the final perception, if Minnesota Public Radio had not followed the story to its origins.
MPR learned that Wehmeyer had a long history of inappropriate sexual behavior and brushes with the law and the archdiocese knew it. Despite this, church officials kept Wehmeyer in ministry, and chose not to warn the parishes where Wehmeyer worked. The MPR report is at tinyurl.com/ndouawk.
Wehmeyer was ordained in 2001 at age 36. The first complaint against him came in 2004 when the archdiocese was informed that Wehmeyer approached two young men ages 19 and 20 for sex at a bookstore. He was sent for treatment and ordered to attend Sexaholics Anonymous meetings. In 2006, a police officer spoke to then vicar general Fr. Kevin McDonough after finding Wehmeyer cruising a park known as a hangout for men looking for anonymous sex.
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