MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Jon Collins St. Paul, Minn. Jun 11, 2014
A former Catholic priest who has admitted to sexually abusing children said in a deposition made public Wednesday that he was never asked by church officials to identify all the children he’d abused, even though some officials knew he’d abused young boys as early as 1964.
Former Rev. Thomas Adamson, 80, was called to testify under oath in a lawsuit alleging that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret. The man who filed the suit claims he was sexually abused by Adamson in the 1970s.
Adamson admitted in the deposition to abusing at least 10 boys while serving in the Diocese of Winona and in positions at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Some top-ranking officials knew that Adamson had abused children as far back as 1964, according to Adamson’s deposition. But none reported the abuse to police. Officials instead transferred Adamson to schools and parishes. Adamson has never been criminally convicted and was officially removed from the priesthood just five years ago.
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