MINNESOTA
Forest Lake Times
By Ryan Howard
October 24, 2014
A former priest who worked in the Forest Lake area and reportedly still lives in town is on a new list of Roman Catholic priests that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says have had allegations of sexual abuse of a minor filed against them.
John Owens, 85, provided what the archdiocese called “temporary weekend assistance” in and around Forest Lake from 1999 to 2004. He spent most of his priestly career (1960-1999) in the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota, where the allegations of abuse originate from. According to the list of 17 names released by the Twin Cities-based archdiocese on Oct. 23, there have been no substantiated claims of child abuse against Owens stemming from his time in Forest Lake. The archdiocese also reported that Owens still lives in Forest Lake, but the Forest Lake Times could not obtain contact information for him before this story was published.
As part of legal action and increased investigations into its past treatment of the victims and alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse in the archdiocese, local church officials have released a number of names over the last several months of priests who have served in the archdiocese who have been accused of sexual misconduct. The Oct. 23 list was released as part of a legal settlement with Jeff Anderson and Associates, a St. Paul-based firm that has brought legal action regarding sexual abuse against the archdiocese a number of times over the years.
While in Bismarck, Owens served as the communications director for the diocese and ran a radio advice show for area adolescents called “Padre’s Platters.” The diocese alerted the North Dakota Department of Human Services in 2002 that a report of sexual misconduct against a minor had been reported regarding Owens. According to the diocese, Owens was instructed to “lead a life of prayer and penance,” and the diocese ordered that he be monitored so as to not pose a risk to minors. In 2005, three years after the Diocese of Bismarck alerted the NDHS, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis removed Owens from ministry.
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