MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: October 10, 2013
The pressure is on Minnesota dioceses to release lists of priests accused of abusing children.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, under fire for its handling of two cases involving sexual misconduct by priests, is also fighting a battle on a second front, facing heightened demands that it release a list held in secret since 2004 of alleged sex offenders among its clergy.
A court hearing on that issue in Ramsey County was where allegations of a child pornography coverup first surfaced last week.
A total of six court hearings seeking the release of secret lists, involving every diocese in Minnesota, are slated for this fall, with additional actions targeting about a dozen Catholic religious orders in Minnesota, said St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who is leading the effort.
A hearing in Crookston on Wednesday marked the first of those hearings, with attorneys for an abuse victim asking a judge to compel the local diocese to release its list. Hearings in New Ulm, Duluth and Winona are next.
Release of the full tally, which might run to dozens of priests facing credible allegations of abuse, could ignite an entirely new round of accusations and lawsuits at a time when many Catholics thought the worst of the clergy sex abuse tragedy was behind the church.
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