MINNESOTA
City Pages
By Jesse Marx Fri., Oct. 17 2014
Before his death in 1985, Father Thomas Stitts is believed to have confessed his sins of sexual abuse — and the sins of some of his colleagues — in a letter. However, that letter may have been burned to protect the parties involved.
There is still one way to get to the bottom of what Stitts knew — by asking the priests who were close to him near the end, some of whom are still alive. But they’re not talking.
Father Richard Rice, for instance, is refusing to answer questions about his private conversations with Stitts as part of a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Rice’s excuse? Minnesota statute 595.02(c) — otherwise known as the “priest-penitent privilege.”
It says members of the clergy do not have to disclose the details of confessions, and is very often upheld by judges. But what makes this case different is that Rice spoke with Stitts as a spiritual adviser, outside the traditional confession-penance-absolution ritual that occurs in a box.
In court Thursday, Patrick Noaker, an attorney for a man who claims to have abused by Stitts as a boy, suggested that the archdiocese was withholding evidence by allowing Rice to remain silent.
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