MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
By Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio
Dec. 19, 2013
When beloved priest Harry Walsh retired two years ago, parishioners of St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Monticello, Minn., decorated a VFW hall with paper shamrocks and musical notes to say goodbye.
They sang, gave speeches and cried. Walsh, then 77, had served as the parish’s music minister for nearly a decade.
Harry Walsh, former pastor of St. Henry Catholic Church, during festivities in his honor Nov. 12, 2011 at the Monticello VFW Post.
“You developed close personal relationships with everybody and that gave us all the ability to trust you with all of our personal lives,” one person wrote on a tribute website for the Irish-born priest. “You have blessed this community immeasurably.”
But Walsh had a secret. He’d been accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old altar boy decades earlier, according to church documents obtained by MPR News, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis contributed to a financial settlement for the girl.
Nonetheless, archbishops Harry Flynn and John Nienstedt allowed him to continue working in parishes until the fall of 2011. And neither bishop called police or warned the public.
More recently Walsh wasn’t included on a list of 30 “credibly accused” priests released Dec. 5 by the archdiocese. Nienstedt said the disclosure of those names was important to restoring trust and could help protect children from harm.
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