MN- Accused predator priest resigns

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

Fr. Keating's resignation achieves virtually nothing. It's incumbent on Archbishop John Nienstedt to quickly announce whether Twin Cities Catholic officials find the child sex abuse accusations against him credible. And before that, it's incumbent on Nienstedt to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins and church web sites to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Keating.  

And it's deceitful for St. Thomas university officials to ignore the credible child sex abuse allegations against him. They too have a civic and moral duty to do outreach, especially to their staff and alums, about Keating.

The archdiocese's clergy review board recommended that Fr. Keating not be allowed to mentor teenagers and young adults, according to Minnesota Public Radio. But Fr. Keating did just that. “It's unclear whether (archdiocesan staff) rejected the recommendation and never passed it along to the university or if university officials knew of the recommendation and disregarded it,” MPR reported.

Every single staffer at the university and at the archdiocese should be up in arms until top officials at each institution until they disclose which one of them acted recklessly and ignored the board's recommendation. Such secrecy is unhealthy and irresponsible.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 20,000 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, d[email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Frank Meuers of Plymouth (952-334-5180,[email protected])