MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 18, 2014

Lawyers, church officials agreed to a “victims first” approach.

The historic settlement between the Twin Cities archdiocese and Minnesota’s top clergy abuse attorney was set in motion on a sunny afternoon in July. That’s when the phone rang in attorney Jeff Anderson’s office.

“I said, ‘You don’t know me, but I’ve been retained by the archdiocese to talk to you,’ ” recalled Minneapolis attorney Charles Rogers. “Jeff said that in 30 years, he’d had no meaningful experience with the archdiocese outside the courtroom. I said, ‘I’d like to try to change that.’ ”

That conversation pried loose the rigid antagonism between the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the attorney who has been representing clergy abuse victims for decades. Three months and dozens of meetings later — some including the vicar general — a global settlement…