MINNESOTA
Owatonna People’s Press
Monday, April 13, 2015
By JEFFREY JACKSON jjackson@owatonna.com
Two priests — one with ties to both Steele and Dodge counties, the other with ties to Dodge County — were named Friday by the Diocese of Winona as suspected of sexual abuse.
The priests, the Rev. Harold Mountain and the Rev. Thomas Duane, are both dead, and the complaints filed against the two came after they had died. Duane, who retired in 1979, died in 1993. Mountain retired in 1989 and died in 2006.
The accusations against Mountain came in 2011 in a letter from a man who said that when he was in either second or third grade, he was sent to Mountain for a supposed infraction at school. Mountain allegedly forced the boy to pull his pants down and fondled him.
“Due to this incident with Father Mountain, [the man who brought the complaint] has been very angry and estranged from the Church,” diocesan documents say. “He wants to be buried in the Catholic cemetery … and would like some amends from the Church for healing before he dies.”
The documents on file at the diocese have been redacted, so it’s not known where or when the incident allegedly took place.
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