ST. PAUL (MN)
Pioneer Press
January 5, 2018
By Sarah Horner
Former Hennepin County Attorney Thomas Johnson stood inside the Ramsey County District Courthouse on Friday morning and rattled off his email address and cellphone number to a handful of reporters gathered nearby.
Then he made the unusual request of asking the media to share his personal contact information with the public.
That’s the only way Johnson can do what the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office have collectively asked him to do: Serve as an independent and ongoing point-of-contact for victims of clergy sexual abuse seeking help and a confidential ear.
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The new ombudsman role is voluntary and self-led, meaning Johnson won’t be answering to anyone or picking up a paycheck.
Standing alongside Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, Johnson said he wants to help those affected by the decades of clergy abuse within the archdiocese and help ensure the climate changes.
Johnson spoke on the same day the archdiocese released to the courts the results of the first of three court-ordered independent audits aimed at assessing the archdiocese’s compliance with the settlement agreement reached with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in 2015 over its handling of sexual abuse claims.
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