MINNESOTA
Owatonna People’s Press
By JEFFREY JACKSON jjackson@owatonna.com
Posted on December 16, 2013
Two priests with ties to Steele County and three others with ties to Dodge County are among the 14 priests named Monday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona as being “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.
The two priests with Steele County ties have since died. Two of the priests with Dodge County ties have died and the third has had his ministerial privileges suspended.
The diocese filed the list in Ramsey County District Court Monday morning, a day before a deadline set by a judge.
Most of the priests on the list served in Catholic churches and schools from the late 1940s to the early 1990s, though two served in the last decade.
The priests with ties to Steele County are:
The Rev. Sylvester F. Brown. He was ordained May 31, 1956, and served at St. Mary School in Owatonna beginning on Aug. 16 of that same year. He also served at the State School in Owatonna, beginning on Aug. 22, 1961. In June 1963, he was assigned to Winona and served in various parishes after that. He returned to the area on Nov. 1, 1989, when he was assigned to St. Ann church in Janesville — a parish to which he continued to be assigned, with his last assignment coming on Dec. 31, 2007. Brown died on Jan. 6, 2010.
The Rev. Louis G. Cook. He was ordained May 31, 1958, and served various parishes in the diocese until Oct. 15, 1970, when he was assigned to Holy Trinity in Litomysl. He also served at Queen of Angels church in Austin in 1970. On March 13, 2000, Cook was assigned to St. Augustine in Austin. He died on Nov. 26, 2004.
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