MINNESOTA
Advocate Tribune
By Scott Tedrick
News Editor
Posted Feb. 26, 2016
It was back in 2010 that a CNN Special Report used Granite Falls as the setting for a story involving an 82 year old priest, Francis Markey, who died in jail in 2012 while facing charges of raping a 15-year-old boy in Ireland 40 years ago.
According to a statement issued then by the New Ulm Diocese, Markey filled in at St. Andrews Catholic Church in Granite Falls during an approximately three month period during the spring of 1982. Over those three months, a community’s worst fears would be realized as CNN would bring to light the voice of an anonymous local resident living across the street from the church alleged that he was abused by Markey as a child.
This past week the story grew significantly more alarming as parishioners of St. Andrews Church received two additional letters signed by New Ulm Diocese Bishop John Levoir, dated February 5 and February 11, informing them of two other priests with a history of sexual abuse were assigned to the parish back-to-back during the 60s and early 70s.
The letters name Fr. Gordon Buckley, who served at the Church of St. Andrews in Granite Falls and the Church of St. James in Dawson, from 1963-69, as well as Fr. Charles Stark who was at St. Andrews from 1969-1971.
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