ST. PAUL (MN)
Catholic Spirit – Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

December 4, 2020

By Maria Wiering

An investigation of an accusation of child sexual abuse against a deceased former pastor of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton has cleared his name, but revealed that the perpetrator may have been a man who later became a priest.

In a Dec. 2 statement to the parish, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment investigated a claim made earlier this year against Msgr. Paul Koscielniak, who died in 1980. The victim-survivor, then a minor, is deceased. The investigation found evidence that the boy was likely abused on several occasions by an adult at the parish, but the evidence did not support the allegation against Msgr. Koscielniak, the parish’s pastor from 1950-1977.

Instead, the abuser may have been…