FLORIDA/MINNESOTA
Herald-Tribune
[Rev. Robert Kapoun – assignment record – BishopAccountability.org]
Commentary
PALMETTO — He was known as the Polka Padre, and parishioners across the state of Minnesota couldn’t get enough of his accordion during church services. He was so popular he even put out an album and had his own billboard.
But there was more to Father Robert Kapoun than most people knew, a much darker side, a side that if you read through the allegations in hundreds of pages of court documents is abhorrent.
By 1995, at least six men claimed Kapoun sexually assaulted them between 1966 and ‘81 when they were boys. Kapoun admitted to three and reportedly there was a “substantial’’ settlement in at least one of the cases in 1990.
Furthermore, the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul was aware of the abuse allegations as early as 1973, and yet Kapoun remained a priest until he was allowed to retire in 1996, a year after a jury awarded a former altar boy $1 million in what was the biggest trial involving the clergy in state history.
Now, if you look on the website of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Palmetto an interesting name appears under the title “visiting priests who we shall always cherish.’’ It’s Kapoun’s. His name shows up in very small type and if “Polka Padre” wasn’t in parentheses it would never even catch your eye.
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