A New Pedophile Priest Suit Accuses Archbishop of Cover up

SNAP
October 29, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_a_new_pedophile_priest_suit_accuses_archbishop_of_cover_up

[Star Tribune]

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)

“The sitting archbishop in St. Louis (Robert Carlson) took part in covering up a case of child sexual abuse in the Twin Cities when he was an assistant bishop, attorneys for an alleged abuse victim said Tuesday after filing Minnesota’s latest clergy abuse lawsuit,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Carlson was “one of at least four prelates who were privy to a 1982 admission by Fr. Robert Thurner that Thurner bought liquor for a 16-year-old boy and sexually abused him. The abuse was kept secret from parishioners at St. John the Evangelist in Hopkins, where Thurner was stationed, and from parents of children at St. Joseph’s church and school in West St. Paul, where Thurner was transferred the following year. Roach appointed him associate pastor at St. Joseph’s, with no restrictions,” the Star Tribune reports.

Carlson may be deposed in the case.

We in SNAP are sad but not surprised. In St. Louis, Carlson has been secretive and reckless in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases. It should shock no one that he was back in Minnesota too. (In the recent civil and criminal abuse cases against Fr. Joseph Jiang, for example, Carlson discloses little or nothing and refuses to do outreach to other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers, even though Carlson is accused of attempted evidence tampering.)

Call 911, not Catholic officials. That’s the lesson here.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 15,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com

Barbara Dorris 314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com