MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
[Replay: News conference on alleged archdiocese coverup]
Article by: TONY KENNEDY , Star Tribune Updated: January 12, 2015
New documents released in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit show that former Vicar General Kevin McDonough intervened to help a prominent University of St. Thomas priest cover up child sexual abuse allegations so he could perform a wedding out of state.
The Rev. Michael Keating was rejected in his first attempt to have officials in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis verify that he had “never been accused of any act of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct involving a minor.”
But McDonough stepped in and agreed to push the paperwork, in what attorneys for the alleged sexual abuse victim describe as a lie. By then, McDonough had spent years dealing with various sexual allegations involving Keating, who was supposed to be monitored at St. Thomas on the advice of a special church panel that reviewed him in 2007.
McDonough, still a pastor in St. Paul, was the archdiocese’s point person on clergy sex abuse allegations for many years.
The 2011 verification check came from a Catholic parish in Peachtree, Ga., to conform with the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s normal vetting process to determine if an outside priest has the qualifications and moral standing to perform sacraments. Keating needed the approval to preside at the wedding of his godson.
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