Fr. Michael Joseph Charland

Allegation to archdiocese in 2002 that Charland sexually assaulted a boy, age 17, during confession while on retreat at a St. Paul parish in 1981. Charland was then campus ministry director at St. Thomas College in St. Paul MN. Order released name 7/7/2015 among seven credibly accused priests as part of a 2/2015 settlement. Left the order in 1984, married. Laicized 11/10/1989. In 7/2015 he was working as a therapist at a Woodbury MN counseling center. No longer listed on center’s site 9/2015; professional license revoked. On OMI list 7/7/2015; Duluth diocese’s list 12/3/2015; Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese’s updated list 4/1/2019. It notes 1970s abuse, reported in 2018. Charland’s file shows that he was removed from his position of Assistant Principal and counselor at St. Henry’s Prep Seminary in Belleville IL in 1/1977 because the rector learned he had fondled a boy during counseling while the boy was sitting naked on his lap, and had touched him sexually during other counseling sessions. He was transferred to St. Thomas College in early 1977. Charland admitted the abuse. Other documents also created during the laicization process refer to other victims and state that Charland’s misconduct began before ordination. (The Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese’s list erroneously states that Charland died in 2004; it was accused priest Peter Charland who died in 2004.) Included on the Diocese of Superior’s list in 11/22; multiple allegations noted, occurring outside of the diocese in the 1970-1980s.