MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 07/15/2014
The whistleblower whose revelations on priest sexual abuse cases and their mishandling by the Twin Cities archdiocese has written a scorching 107-page affidavit describing top officials’ cover-ups, blaming of victims, willful ignorance, lies and a “cavalier attitude toward the safety of other people’s children.”
Canon lawyer Jennifer M. Haselberger, who served as the chancellor for canonical affairs at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 to 2013, submitted the document in the civil case of Doe 1. The plaintiff filed suit against the archdiocese, the Diocese of Winona and former priest Thomas Adamson last year, alleging Adamson abused him in the 1970s. Plaintiff’s attorney Jeffrey Anderson filed Haselberger’s affidavit Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.
Anderson’s experience with church-related sexual abuse cases goes back 30 years, he said, and he found the affidavit to be the “the most stinging and broad-ranging indictment I’ve ever seen of these practices.”
Haselberger provides shocking detail on the action, or lack of action, of past and present officials in the archdiocese, including former Archbishop Harry Flynn, Archbishop John Nienstedt, Bishop Lee Piche, former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, former Vicar General Peter Laird and former chancellor for civil affairs and archdiocese attorney Andrew Eisenzimmer.
Haselberger said she endured “months of harassment, threats, and intimidation” before resigning April 30, 2013. The state Department of Employment and Economic Development concluded she “resigned for good reason caused by my employer, because I felt that I could no longer work for an organization that was not cooperating fully with investigations into illegal activities within the organization,” she wrote.
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