Rev. Kenneth Gansmann, o.f.m.-Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. Kenneth Gansmann, o.f.m.

Summary of Case: Gansmann was ordained a priest of the Springfield, IL - based Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart in 1935.
He ministered in Chicago and Joliet schools and parishes until 1948, when he was transferred to the St. Paul archdiocese. In 1959 he was moved back to Chicago for a year, and then to Nashville, TN, where he pastored a parish until his death in 1974. In 2007 a man reported to the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese that he was sexually abused by Gansmann in Minnesota many decades previously. Archdiocesan officials deemed his allegations credible; documents show they also had reason to believe the man wasn't Gansmann's only victim. The allegations against Gansmann weren't made public by the archdiocese until February 2014.

Ordained: June 24, 1935
Died: May 21, 1974

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State/Country	Position	Notes
1935 Springfield bishop was James Aloysius Griffin (1923-1948).	1936	St. Joseph's Seminary	Teutopolis	IL		This was a House of Theological Studies for the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart.
1936 Chicago archbishop was George William Mundelein (1915-1939).	1939	St. Augustine's (German)	Chicago	IL	3/3	St. Augustine's had a school with 1107-1050 students.
1939 Mundelein was succeeded by Samuel Alphonsus Stritch (1939-1958).	1944					Gansmann is indexed in the 1940-1944 Directories as at St. Augustine's, but he is not listed as there in the Chicago archdiocesan pages.
1944	1945					Gansmann is indexed in the 1945 Directory as at Corpus Christi ("Colored") in Chicago, but he is not listed as there in the archdiocesan pages. The parish had a school with 800 students.
1945	1948	College of St. Francis	Joliet	IL	chaplain	This was a resident and day school for young women.
1945 The Joliet diocese was established in Dec. 1948. Its first bishop was Martin Dewey McNamara (1948-1966).	1948	St. John Friary	Joliet	IL
1948 St. Paul archbishop was John Gregory Murry (1931-1956), followed by William Otterwell Brady (1956-1961).	1958	St. John the Evangelist Campus of St. Wenceslaus	New Prague	MN	Pastor	This assignment is per news reports.
1949	1959	St. John the Baptist's	Jordan (Union Hill) • In 2007 a man reported to the archdiocese that Gansmann sexually abused him during his time at St. John the Baptist's. Vicar-General Rev. Kevin McDonough wrote in a 2008 letter to three New Prague area priests," ...we have good reason to believe that the man who came forward to speak with us is not the only one to have suffered such abuse by Fr. Gansmann."	MN	7/7, 5/6, 6/6, 4/7 In residence 1951-1959.	St. John's had a school with 225-320 students. The St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese did not make the allegations against Gansmann public until Feb. 2014.
1959 Chicago archbishop was Albert Gregory Meyer (1958-1965).	1960	St. Peter's Church in the Loop	Chicago	IL	17/31
1960	1974	St. Vincent De Paul	Nashville	TN	1/2, 1/3, 1/1	St. Vincent's had a school with 516-247 students. Gansmann died May 21, 1974.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1936-1975)

•Archdiocese of St Paul & Minneapolis Assignment Record, Feb. 16, 2014
• Rev. Kenneth John Gansmann (1909-1974), Findagrave.com
• Archdiocese of St Paul & Minneapolis list of Priests Accused of Abuse, revised Feb. 17, 2014
• Archdiocese Names More Priests Credibly Accused of Abuse, By Euan Kerr St. Paul, Minnesota Public Radio, February 17, 2014
• Accused priests: Who they are, where they’ve served, what’s alleged, Minnesota Public Radio, Feb. 20, 2014 |

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Gansmann's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on March 2, 2014.