SOUTH DAKOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 29
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com , davidgclohessy@gmail.com )
South Dakota citizens and Catholics will learn much more about a predatory priest who worked in the state thanks to a court ruling issued yesterday.
A Minnesota judge has ordered two Catholic dioceses to turn over long-secret records about Fr. James Vincent Fitzgerald to attorneys who represent child sex abuse victims.
In 2010, a civil lawsuit was filed against the Sioux City Iowa Diocese, Oblates & Sisters of the Divine Savior alleging that Fr. Fitzgerald sexually assaulted a boy and a girl in the 1960s at the Tekakwitha Indian Mission in Sisseton, SD. (In 2013 and 2014, Fr. Fitzgerald was named in other civil suits for allegedly molesting other kids in Minnesota, where he worked in three dioceses: Duluth, Crookston and New Ulm).
We are grateful to the brave Minnesota victim whose litigation led to yesterday’s decision. And we’re grateful to Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann for ruling for openness and against secrecy.
Kids are safest when parents, parishioners, police, prosecutors and the public know more about those who commit and conceal child sex crimes.
So we call on Sioux Falls Bishop Paul J. Swain to use his vast church resources to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Fitzgerald’s crimes. Parish bulletins, church websites, and pulpit announcements should be used to seek out anyone else who might have been sexually assaulted by this serial predator priest.
More information about Fr. Fitzgerald is available at BishopAccountability.org
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