MINNESOTA
KARE
[with video]
Trisha Volpe, KARE July 2, 2014
A 75-year-old man is suing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, claiming a now-deceased priest sexually abused him 60 years ago.
The man, who in the 1950s served as an altar boy at Guardian Angels Church in Hastings, contends in the lawsuit that he was barely 13 when the Rev. Alphonsus Ferguson first assaulted him in the church rectory.
His lawsuit, filed in Ramsey County court today, claims the archdiocese knew Ferguson “posed a risk” to children and “despite clear indications of danger” from a “known pedophile,” took no steps to protect children from him. It seeks unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.
“When it happens to you, through the years, you always look back and say, ‘What did I do to have that happen to me?'” he said. MPR News and KARE 11 are not naming the man, to protect his family’s privacy.
Ferguson, who died in the 1970s, served at Guardian Angels for 15 years, according to his obituary. The church, which merged with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in 1987, was home to at least five other priests against whom allegations of child sexual abuse and other sexual improprieties have been leveled. Three of those men — the Revs. Thomas Stitts, Clarence Vavra and Robert Blumeyer — have been publicly named by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as having been “credibly accused.”
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