The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona have asked for more time to challenge a judge's order to release the names of all priests accused of sexually abusing children and teens since 2004.
A Ramsey County district judge had initially given the church a Jan. 6 deadline to file the list of priests more recently accused of abuse. Earlier this month, Judge John Van de North postponed that deadline to Feb. 5.
But lawyers for the church argued that the court "exceeded its jurisdiction" when it ordered that the names of all priests accused of abuse, whether "credibly accused" or not, be made public. It filed papers in Ramsey County District Court Friday, asking the court to delay the Feb. 5 deadline, pending an opportunity to "fully brief the issue" before the court.
"It is the archdiocese position that this court has exceeded its jurisdiction and authority in ordering the archdiocese to make certain disclosures of all priests accused of child abuse regardless of when and under what circumstances those accusations were made," wrote Daniel Haws, a lawyer for the archdiocese.
Attorneys for the alleged abuse victim, whose lawsuit requested the release of priests' names, called the action an example of the church trying to hide the identities of abusers. The church has had "ample opportunity' " to argue against releasing the names, said attorney Mike Finnegan, of St. Paul-based Anderson & Associates.
"They are breaking their promises to the community to be open and transparent," Finnegan said.
Both the archdiocese and the Winona diocese have released the names of clergy credibly accused of abuse before 2004, names they submitted to a national study of clergy abuse prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops a decade ago.
Attorneys apparently were caught off guard earlier this month, when Van de North ordered that the list of more recent offenders include any priest who had been accused of sex abuse of a minor — regardless of whether the church deemed the accusation credible.
