Report: Minn St. Paul Archdiocese knew of Minnesota priest's misconduct

ST. PAUL — When the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer was accused last year of sexually abusing children, officials from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis told police he would immediately be relieved of his duties and were praised for their quick response.

But top archdiocese officials had known of Wehmeyer's sexual compulsions for nearly a decade yet kept him in ministry and failed to warn parishioners, Minnesota Public Radio News reported today. MPR cited canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger, who resigned in April, and dozens of other interviews and documents.

A memo written in 2011 shows the former vicar general — the top deputy of the archdiocese — did not want employees at Wehmeyer's parish to know about his past.

“At every step of the way, this could have been prevented,” Haselberger said. “This is just failure after failure after failure after failure.”

Wehmeyer is serving a five-year prison term for sexually abusing two boys and possessing child pornography. He declined to comment, as did Archbishop John Nienstedt.
continue at Duluth Trib

Jennifer Haselberger was only appointed 5 years ago so this isn't some old dissident, the claims bears a great deal of weight. If it is true, good for her for speaking it, it's the right thing to do.

HT Ray

Photo MPR

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is the same MO used in Milwaukee. If he was a priest there he would still be work.