MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Apr 16, 2014
A former top deputy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis answered questions under oath today about his handling of clergy sexual abuse cases as part of a lawsuit brought by an alleged victim.
The Rev. Kevin McDonough, who served as vicar general for Archbishops John Roach and Harry Flynn and led the archdiocese’s child safety programs until September, declined to comment.
Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents the alleged victim of the Rev. Thomas Adamson, said McDonough answered most questions. However, McDonough refused to respond to questions about his decision not to participate in a St. Paul police investigation into clergy abuse cases, Anderson said. St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith has previously said that McDonough has declined to talk to police.
Anderson said he plans to release the deposition to the public after he reviews it.
McDonough coordinated the archdiocese’s response to dozens of cases of clergy sexual abuse over the past three decades, including the case of the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a St. Paul priest now in prison for sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography. Prior to the discovery of Wehmeyer’s abuse, McDonough had advised Archbishop John Nienstedt that parish employees did not need to know about Wehmeyer’s sexual addiction. The mother of the victims was a parish employee. She told MPR News in February that she would have never let her children spend time with Wehmeyer if she had known he was a sex addict.
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