MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
by Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
October 14, 2013
A Minnesota woman filed a lawsuit today accusing the Rev. Michael Keating, a popular professor at the University of St. Thomas, of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager and he was studying to become a priest in the late 1990s.
Keating was in his 40s at the time. The woman told MPR News that her family reported the abuse to Archbishop Harry Flynn in 2006 but an internal review determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to remove Keating from ministry. Instead of providing comfort, she said, church officials repeatedly questioned her for details and determined it wasn’t abuse.
“It felt like a betrayal times two,” she said. “First time, I’m betrayed by Keating, and then I’m betrayed by the archdiocese.”
The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, spoke to MPR News and a reporter from another news organization on the condition of anonymity. The complaint, filed by attorney Jeff Anderson in Ramsey County, alleges Keating “engaged in multiple instances of unpermitted, harmful, and offensive sexual contact” from 1997 to 2000 while he was a student at St. Paul Seminary.
Keating’s LinkedIn profile said he went to study in Rome in 1999. The school did not immediately respond to a request for enrollment and graduation dates.
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