MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Jun 9, 2014
St. Louis archbishop Robert Carlson — who served in the Twin Cities for 24 years — testified last month that he wasn’t sure whether he knew it was illegal for priests to have sex with children when he served as chancellor of the Twin Cities archdiocese in the 1980s, according to a transcript released Monday.
The former chancellor also said he couldn’t recall reporting abuse to police while here from 1970 to 1994.
Carlson, 69, testified as part of a lawsuit that alleges 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 the Rev. Thomas Adamson in the 1970s.
The case has already forced the depositions of Archbishop John Nienstedt, former Archbishop Harry Flynn and other top officials. It also required church officials to make public the names of abusive priests and turn over more than 60,000 pages of internal documents to the plaintiff’s attorneys.
Carlson also faces a massive clergy abuse lawsuit in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he’s served since 2009. The case, set for trial in July, involves a similarly aggressive fight over the release of documents and the names of offenders dating back decades. One document made public in the case shows that more than 100 priests and church employees have been accused of abuse, and the Missouri Supreme Court has ordered the archdiocese to turn over the names of abusers under seal.
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