MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 04/14/2014
There are “serious shortcomings” in the way the Twin Cities archdiocese has dealt with alleged child sexual abuse by its priests, a report released Monday concludes.
The Safe Environment and Ministerial Standards Task Force, whose members were appointed in October by the Rev. Reginald Whitt of St. Thomas University, said the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis had for many years “concentrated too much power in one or two individuals to make decisions” about clergy sex abuse.
One of those, former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, refused through his attorney to be interviewed by the task force.
Task force members wanted to interview another former vicar general, Rev. Peter Laird.
The archdiocese said Laird was on leave and “it did not have contact information for him.”
Among the report’s conclusions:
— Record-keeping on clergy is done by outdated systems and is not comprehensive.
— The archdiocese’s complaint-reporting system is “confusing and inadequate.”
— The archdiocese has “no meaningful compliance auditing and monitoring program to evaluate, test, and monitor compliance with policies and procedures that are designed to prevent and detect sexual abuse of minors.”
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