Arch. Minn St. Paul paid $11 million for misconduct by priests

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis spent nearly $11 million from 2003 through 2012 to cover costs directly associated with sexual abuse and other misconduct committed by priests who were removed from active ministry, according to church documents obtained by the Star Tribune.

The archdiocese wrote checks directly to victims of abuse, in cases involving children and vulnerable adults, in every year of the period covered by the reports, totaling more than $476,000 over the decade. Also, $1.5 million was paid on behalf of victims to cover counseling, therapy and other medical services.

Additional money was distributed to child victims via a trust account funded by the archdiocese and managed by the St. Paul law firm Meier, Kennedy & Quinn.

A source close to the archdiocese said victims’ payments detailed in the documents applied only to cases handled inside the archdiocese, not to those adjudicated in the courts.

Some children, for instance, have received tuition money to attend Catholic schools, including St. Agnes in St. Paul and DeLaSalle in Minneapolis.

Other substantial payments went for therapy and treatment. In 2007, for example, when total payments ran to $1.62 million, one of the biggest single categories was $303,882 in support of child victims. Those funds paid for the cost of psychiatric care and other treatment through such providers as Life Healing Center in Santa Fe, N.M., North Metro Psychiatry, Hazelden Foundation and University of Minnesota Physicians.
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Jim Accurso, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said late Wednesday that checks written directly to victims were related to out-of-court “priest suit settlements’’ in which “many’’ of the victims were represented by attorneys. He also confirmed that other victims were paid out of settlement funds distributed by Meier, Kennedy & Quinn under a legal trust account arrangement.

continue at STrib

Sounds a lot like Milwaukee.  I'm sure many of the other archdioceses have similar programs.  Pretty standard stuff.  SNAP doesn't like money going to victims when they haven't got a piece of the pie.  STrib wants to go interrogate in the schoolyard to find out who they can make famous.

The money doesn't matter, and for some reason the STrib doesn't even ask(unless I missed it).  "Are any of these priests found guilty still in active ministry?   If these cases were regarding criminal activity, were authorities alerted?"