MINNESOTA
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Grant Gallicho April 25, 2014
In sworn testimony released yesterday, Fr. Kevin McDonough, former vicar general and abuse-prevention czar of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis disputed Archbishop John Nienstedt’s claim that McDonough had advised him not to keep written records of conversations about accused priests because they might be discovered in litigation. Having served three archbishops, two as vicar general for nearly twenty years and Nienstedt as “delegate for safe environment,” few know more about how the Twin Cities diocese handled clergy accused of sexual misconduct. (More from MPR here, full video here.)
During the six-and-a-half-hour interview–which ended abruptly after lawyers disagreed about the allotted time–McDonough acknowledged what most observers of the crisis already knew: for many years, archdiocesan practice was not to routinely laicize abusers. Nor did it, as a matter of policy, report all accusations to the police. But McDonough also provided his version of the events surrounding several controversial cases, including that of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer, now jailed for molesting children, and that of Fr. John Shelley, whose computer was found to contain “borderline illegal” pornographic images (a county attorney did not press charges).
The release of McDonough’s deposition comes two days after Nienstedt’s was made public. Their court-ordered testimony was taken in connection with a lawsuit by a plaintiff who claims he was abused by a priest in the 1970s. The suit alleges that the archdiocese, along with the Diocese of Winona, created a public nuisance by hiding information about accused priests.
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