MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News
By Jerome Christenson
A former Diocese of Winona priest who has admitted to having sex with more than 10 boys still draws a monthly check from the Diocese of Winona.
According to an agreement outlined in a letter signed Oct. 9, 2008 by Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington, Thomas Adamson will draw the annual pension agreed upon for senior priests under the Diocese Priests Pension Plan, along with medical and dental coverage for “the remainder of your life.”
Six months later, Pope Benedict XVI granted Adamson “dispensation from all the obligations connected to sacred ordination,” formally removing him from the Roman Catholic priesthood more than 45 years after he admitted sexually abusing boys to Bishop Edward Fitzgerald.
Adamson’s ongoing financial relationship with the diocese was revealed in a sworn May 16 deposition Adamson provided as part of a suit brought against the Diocese of Winona and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by an anonymous plaintiff who claims he was sexually abused by Adamson in the 1970s. The lawsuit is the first filed after the Minnesota Legislature opened a three-year window in 2013 that set aside the statute of limitations in cases of abuse.
The Diocese of Winona failed to respond to requests for a statement or comment about Adamson’s deposition.
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