MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015
For more information: Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com ), David Clohessy of St. Louis, SNAP Director (314) 566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com
Duluth predator priest is exposed
Catholic officials are re-opening probe
Cleric is accused of abusing a boy and a girl
He was transferred to five states & 7 MN towns
Victims to Duluth bishop: “How many others are you hiding?”
Twin Cities Catholic officials are re-opening an investigation into accusations that a priest who worked in the Duluth area sexually abused two South Dakota children.
Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, learned last week that Fr. J. Vincent Fitzgerald was at St. Michael’s parish in Northome from 1970- 1971 and at St. Catherine’s parish in Squaw Lake from 1972-1983.
In 2010, Fr. Fitzgerald was sued for reportedly assaulting a boy and a girl in the late 1960s at the Tekakwitha Indian Mission in Sisseton, South Dakota.
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/twin-cities-archdiocese-reopens-case-priest-accused-sex-abuse
Fr. Fitzgerald was in the news last week, when a Twin Cities judge ruled that two Minnesota bishops must release his records and when St. Paul Catholic officials re-opened their investigation into him.
Fr. Fitzgerald worked in five states and SNAP strongly suspects that he may have assaulted kids in each of them.
“Child predators rarely strike once or twice,” said Verne Wagner of Duluth. “We worry that there are adults here in Minnesota who were hurt by Fr. Fitzgerald and are still struggling in shame, silence and self-blame. And we worry how many other credibly accused predator priests there are like Fr. Fitzgerald – who are still being hidden by Catholic officials in Duluth.”
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