MINNESOTA
Hastings Star Gazette
Atttorneys on Wednesday, July 2, filed a civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on behalf of a former altar boy, alleging that a longtime priest raped the boy inside the priest’s bedroom at a southeastern Minnesota rectory.
John Doe 110, as he is called in newly filed court papers, was about 10 years old and serving as an altar boy at Guardian Angels Church in Hastings, Minnesota in the early 1950s. Rev. Alphonsus Ferguson lured the boy to meet him inside the rectory, court papers say. Ferguson then took the plaintiff into his bedroom and anally raped the boy, leaving him with permanent injuries, court papers allege.
The victim is now 74 and still lives in Minnesota. Fr. Ferguson passed away in 1973. Ferguson served as pastor of Guardian Angels in Hastings from 1951-65 and as such was employed by and served under the supervision of the archdiocese. Ferguson was a member of the religious order Franciscan Servants of the Sacred Heart, in Omaha, Neb.
“This is a very worrisome case because Fr. Ferguson appears on no Archdiocese lists of perpetrators or sex offender registries. If he were alive, he would still be a priest in a parish and he would have access to more Archdiocese children to abuse,” said Patrick Noaker, John Doe 110’s attorney.
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