MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Feb 20, 2014
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement late Wednesday criticizing an MPR News story on clergy accused of sexual abuse.
The MPR News story published Wednesday said the archdiocese has not disclosed a complete list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse. The story cited police reports, court records and the archdiocese’s internal files.
In its statement, the archdiocese said that it remains committed to disclosing “substantiated” claims of abuse. “The 28 clergy members identified by MPR have not been publicly disclosed by the archdiocese because they do not, to date, constitute substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,” the statement said. The archdiocese said that improperly identifying individuals “is irresponsible and does not serve victims, safety of children or the public good.”
The archdiocese has been working with Kinsale Management Consulting, a private firm, to review its clergy personnel files.
“With the engagement of the Kinsale team, the archdiocese continues to work on fulfilling the public promises we have made to create safe environments for children, care for victims, facilitate a healing process for our local church in order to restore trust with the Catholic faithful, and restore trust with clergy who are serving honorably,” the archdiocese’s statement said. “In the event any of the claims against 28 of the clergy members identified by MPR are substantiated, they will be disclosed on our website according to our policy.”
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