MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary
June 13, 2017
Joelle Casteix
<– Back to Part One: Altoona-Johnstown
Last month, Crookston, MN Catholic deacon and child sex abuse survivor Ron Vasek (pictured above) came forward and filed a lawsuit saying that “Crookston Bishop Michael Hoeppner threatened to undermine his religious work and that of his son’s [a priest in that diocese] if he didn’t retract a child sex clergy abuse claim.”
This alleged threat happened in 2015. Yes … 2015. As in TWO YEARS AGO.
Vasek says he was sexually abused as a child by Monsignor Roger Grundhaus, the former Vicar General of the Crookston Diocese, a very powerful and well-known priest.
According to the lawsuit, during a closed-door 2015 meeting, Hoeppner said that Vasek’s son’s priestly career would be in jeopardy if he didn’t sign the document saying he was never sexually abused by Grundhaus.
That’s bad news. No one likes to ruin their son’s vocation. So Vasek signed the letter. And he immediately regretted it. So in 2017, Vasek decided to come forward and tell the truth.
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