MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: January 3, 2014
Attorney for archdiocese told judge that court order could harm reputation of innocent priests.
A Ramsey County District judge Friday extended the deadline for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to release a second list of priests accused of child sexual abuse until Feb. 5.
Archdiocese officials went to court Friday morning to argue that the names of some priests accused of child sexual abuse should not be included in the list it had been ordered to file by Monday.
The second list updates a list of priests the church deemed “credibly accused” that was prepared a decade ago. Attorneys for the archdiocese argued that the court order requiring the release of the names — this time of all priests accused of abuse after 2004, regardless of whether they were “credibly accused” — is ambiguous and could harm the reputation of innocent priests.
The diocese of Winona wrote a letter to the court, supporting the archdiocese.
“Rumors spread by a mentally unbalanced individual, by a disgruntled parish employee, by conservative parishioners disliking a liberal pastor [or vice versa] … would have to be publicly disclosed without regard to credibility,” wrote the archdiocese’ attorney Tom Wieser, in a Dec. 18 letter to Ramsey County Judge John Van de North.
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.