ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review
Joseph Kenny | jkenny@archstl.org | twitter: @josephkenny2
New! Watch the video statement regarding the controversy from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and click here to read his letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
A videotaped deposition of Archbishop Robert J. Carlson in a lawsuit involving an alleged abuse some 35 years ago was covered extensively this week when a video clip of it was highlighted to news media outlets at a press conference June 9 by the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The attorney “strategically took Archbishop Carlson’s response to a question out of context and suggested that the archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child. Nothing could be further from the truth,” a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Louis pointed out. Read the deposition here.
In another part of the deposition, Archbishop Carlson is asked by the plaintiff’s attorney whether he knows a specific sexual act by a priest on a child is a crime, and the archbishop answers, “Yes.”
The deposition was related to a lawsuit seeking damages in a Minnesota state court against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Winona and a former priest of Winona, Thomas Adamson. Archbishop Carlson is a former priest and auxiliary bishop of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, where he served on the Personnel Board and as vice chancellor and chancellor. Neither Archbishop Carlson nor the Archdiocese of St. Louis are parties of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit concerns allegations of abuse by Adamson of a minor in 1976-77.
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