ROCHESTER (MN)
FOX 47 TV
November 18, 2018
“As part of this healing, it is incumbent upon us to create a path forward that provides just compensation for the victims of abuse. This must include public acknowledgment of their pain and an apology for it as well as financial compensation,” Bishop John Quinn said in a statement released over the weekend.
The Diocese is facing 121 pending claims of clergy sex abuse by 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with children from the 1960s through the 1980s.
The Diocese disclosed the names in 2013: Thomas Adamson, Sylvester Brown, Joseph Cashman, Louis Cook, William Curtis, John Feiten, Richard Hatch, Ferdinand, Leo Koppala, Jack Krough, Michael Kuisle, James Lennon, Leland Smith, and Robert Taylor.
They include a high school principal, parish priests, a hospital chaplain, and seminary instructors. All of whom have either died or been suspended from the ministry. 11 of them served in Rochester parishes.
Father Hatch sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in 1962, while serving as a priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Winona. The lawsuit alleges the Diocese knew about Father Hatch being a possible sexual abuser at the time, citing a 1964 letter from then diocesan chancellor Monsignor Emmett Tighs, in which he cited Hatch as being quote “A very disturbed man.”
Quinn, in his statement, said the Diocese is committed to creating an environment of healing for these victims and their families.
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