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	Diocese Urged to Apologize to Families of Funeral Home Victims By Larry Oakes Minneapolis Star Tribune [Superior WI] October 18, 2005 SUPERIOR, WIS. - An official for the Diocese of Superior said Monday that Bishop Raphael Fliss plans to meet this week with relatives of two men slain in a Hudson, Wis., funeral home, in what a judge found was most likely a double murder by a Catholic priest who later killed himself. "We'd like to express our condolences and sincere sorrow," the Rev. Philip Heslin, chief operating officer of the diocese, said during a meeting with clergy-abuse survivors who are pressing the diocese to explain why the Rev. Ryan Erickson was allowed to be a priest, despite allegations of sexual misconduct. Heslin's announcement came as two members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests hand-delivered a letter to the diocese, calling on Fliss to apologize to the families of those slain, release all records on Erickson and aggressively encourage victims of Erickson and other priests to come forward. "These questions are not going to go away," Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest director, said. "They can either voluntarily surrender the answers or a cloud of suspicion will continue to hang over this diocese." Heslin told the SNAP representatives that Fliss was not in, but he said the letter would be given to the bishop. After a hearing two weeks ago, a St. Croix County judge found probable cause to believe that Erickson killed funeral home director Daniel O'Connell and mortuary science intern James Ellison in February 2002. They were shot to death as O'Connell - a parishioner in the church where Erickson served as associate pastor - was preparing to confront the priest with allegations that the priest had touched children inappropriately. Last December, after police interviewed Erickson about the case, he hanged himself from a church rectory fire escape in Hurley, Wis., where he had been transferred. In 1994, a teenaged boy said that Erickson, who was in seminary at the time, offered to perform oral sex on the boy. Investigators in Vila County declined to file charges because there likely was not enough evidence to convict Erickson of a crime. At the time, a diocese official relieved Erickson of responsibilities associated with young people. Isely and SNAP member Bob Schwiderski called on the diocese to publicly honor O'Connell and Ellison. "This man O'Connell died because he stopped a priest pedophile," Isely said. Heslin defended the diocese, saying, "We're doing everything we can to provide a safe environment for children." Noting that church psychologists evaluated Erickson several times and found him fit to be a priest, he said: "We have to put our trust in the psychologists."
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