Former head of US bishops' committee on abuse testifies he never informed police about cases in his archdiocese

June 04, 2014

Retired Archbishop Harry Flynn, who once headed the US bishops’ committee implementing norms for handling sex-abuse cases, has testified that he never informed police about abuse complaints in the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, which he led from 1995 to 2008.

In a sworn deposition that was made public June 4, Archbishop Flynn said that while working on national policies, he delegated much of the work of handling sex-abuse complaints against clergy in Minnesota. The archbishop said over 100 times that he could not accurately recall the details of various cases. “It’s unfortunate that we did not pay more attention to this as a result,” he testified.

Archbishop Flynn, who is 81, said that his inability to recall cases was not due to problems with memory, although advancing age may have been a factor.

 

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Further information:

• Former Twin Cities Archbishop Flynn does not recall clergy abuse details (Star Tribune)
• Retired Archbishop Flynn doesn't recall details from his handling of clergy abuse (MPR)