KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
September 21, 2018
By Heidi Schlumpf
St. Paul University confirms John Huels no longer teaching there
A liturgical canonist and teacher who had admitted abusing a minor while serving as an associate pastor in the United States is no longer teaching at the Canadian pontifical university where he had been a full professor.
St. Paul University confirmed that John Huels is no longer teaching at the university, after Huels’ victim contacted Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and NCR ran a story about the abuse.
In the article that NCR published Sept. 12, survivor Michael Bland wondered if he would find justice amid the renewed attention to clergy sexual abuse, telling NCR that he had hope but little trust. “I think I have found healing, but I have not found accountability,” he said.
Now, it seems he has found accountability, too.
Prendergast responded within four days to a Sept. 18 email from Bland, a psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago who served on the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board. The archbishop informed him that Huels is no longer teaching at St. Paul University.
“I can assure you that we are striving to do justice for those who have been harmed by abuse and to bring about healing,” Prendergast wrote to Bland. “Be assured of my prayers for you and all who have been victimized by clergy.”
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