MINNESOTA
The Blaze
Jun. 10, 2014 Billy Hallowell
An archbishop’s claim that he wasn’t sure decades ago whether he knew an adult — and, more specifically, a priest — having sexual relations with a child was illegal has raised more than a few eyebrows.
St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson told attorney Jeff Anderson last month in a taped deposition that he wasn’t certain he knew priest sex abuse was criminal when he served as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis during the 1980s, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Archbishop, you knew the crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid,” Anderson said.
Carlson, though, expressed uncertainty: “I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”
Anderson continued his questioning, asking when Carlson first discerned that it’s criminal for adults to engage in sex and when he first understood that it was illegal for priests to have sex with children.
“I don’t remember,” Carlson answered on both counts.
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