MINNESOTA
WDIO

[with video]

By: Baihly Warfield
bwarfield@wdio.com

DULUTH, Minn. – Newly released documents indicate the Diocese of Duluth had knowledge of priests’ history of sexual abuse before bringing them to work in the Northland. Twin Cities law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, which is active in clergy abuse lawsuits, released those documents Monday.

The four priests accused of child sex abuse mentioned in the documents were the Revs. Gregory Manning, Charles Gormly, Bernard Bissonnette and Alfred Longley. They were all accused of abuse while working in the Diocese of Duluth, according to the law firm. The documents show three of the four, all except Longley, spent time at a vocational and psychological assistance facility called Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico for problems with child sex abuse.

The head of Servants of the Paraclete, the Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, wrote to then-Duluth bishop Thomas…