Twin Cities priest’s parishes had suspicions, but archdiocese did little
By Emily Gurnon, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The Rev.
She reported her concerns to church deacon and custodian
A spokesman for the archdiocese said officials there had never received a report of sexual abuse of a child by Johnson and never investigated. The spokesman would not say whether Johnson had been investigated for misconduct or boundary violations, saying the archdiocese did not have Johnson's permission to disclose that information.
Was Johnson an example of a priest whose conduct never rose to the level requiring action? Or did archdiocese officials look the other way in response to concerns? Interviews with parishioners and church staff, as well as a review of documents, reveal parish after parish sought action on Johnson -- and saw little.
Three weeks after Johnson learned that Elsen had made a report, he fired Elsen from his custodian job, citing "gross disloyalty" and poor job performance, among other reasons.
Elsen sued for wrongful termination but lost.
Johnson denied he sexually abused any child.
It wasn't the first time church officials had faced concerns about the priest, and it wasn't the last.
In his 32 years in the archdiocese, Johnson was placed in 10 parishes. Pastor assignments, as opposed to less-senior positions, are set at six years, but Johnson was moved, on average, every 3.6 years while a pastor. Two of his pastor jobs lasted just two years.
Johnson, 66, did not respond to phone calls and a letter sent to his home address. He was not at home when a reporter visited his
THREATENED WITH A DEFAMATION SUIT
Many parishioners described Johnson as a highly creative man who enjoyed celebrating Mass and reveled in the pomp and pageantry of it, often dressing in elegant vestments. He loved music. He championed the poor and immigrants.
But there were also questions, even from those who believed him to be harmless.
He surrounded himself with children. Not girls, just boys, said many who observed him. He posted numerous photos of boys in his living quarters.
He invited high school boys to pre-prom parties at the rectory and served dinners to groups of children in his private quarters, according to staff and parishioners.
Before he served in
Johnson would hand out cards to boys that read, "Good for a free lunch with Father," Tacheny said. The boys attended Presentation elementary school, which serves students through eighth grade. He then took the boys off school grounds for the lunches, Tacheny said.
Tacheny had been a member of Presentation for decades and served as a lector, a Eucharistic minister and a member of the liturgy committee. She also worked as an elementary teacher in the
In a meeting with McDonough and Johnson to discuss the matter, Johnson became angry with Tacheny and threatened to sue her for defamation, she said.
McDonough later told Tacheny that in his investigation he found no "smoking gun" in Johnson's conduct toward boys, Tacheny said.
FREQUENT MOVES
Phillips, who later served as a victim advocate on an archdiocese team responding to clergy sexual abuse, said his questions prompted a second investigation.
"I was the one that turned him in because I come out of a hospital background, and counseling, and our sense of boundaries is very strict," Phillips said. "I just thought there were some bad boundaries (by Johnson)."
He declined to elaborate on the behavior he observed.
McDonough also took part in the second investigation, which turned up no evidence of sexual abuse, Phillips said. Phillips now serves as a pastoral minister at the
After four years as pastor at Presentation, Johnson was reassigned to
In
Auxiliary Bishop
PRESSED AGAINST A WALL
A staff member at Guardian Angels emailed Archbishop
A man and his adolescent son had come into the parish office. The boy was leaning up against a wall wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt with no jacket.
"Fr. Johnson pushed into him and 'pinned' him against the wall (with) full body contact, his face was directly in the young man's face and asked him where his coat was ... kept him in that position for several minutes," she wrote.
Johnson joked and teased the boy about not wearing a jacket, the staff member said in an interview.
"He put his knee between this boy's legs, and he was pressed (against the wall)," she told the
Flynn did not respond to the email, but someone from his office did about a month later, she said. The gist of the archdiocese message: "Basically, that they were handling it."
The staff member did not know that four days before the incident, a teacher and others from
"At my meeting with you on
"When I heard about this (pinning) incident, a sick feeling hit me in the gut. I thought you told me he has boundaries and if he steps over again that's it. Looks like a pretty big step to me!"
Epperly died in 2009.
Cozzens said Flynn "received the letter and responded ... stating he would address the issue. I do know that, if we received a letter like this today, we would investigate it immediately."
A TRIP WITH THE PASTOR
The archbishop also heard from another longtime church member in
The man and his wife showed a reporter a letter he had written to Flynn, telling the archbishop that Johnson invited two high school boys to accompany him on a trip to
Before the trip, Johnson sent them postcards, the church member said. On the younger boy's card was a picture of a statue of two naked males, their bodies entwined. A preprinted message said, "Our newfound love on the beaches of
On the other side, Johnson wrote, "Soon you will be 18 and you don't need your parents' consent. Don't tell your parents about it."
In response to the parishioner's letter three months later, Auxiliary Bishop
"He indicated that it was his judgment that the information was 'not fully accurate,' " Pates said in a letter the man's wife showed to a reporter. "He and I concurred that the most reasonable first step would be for you and him to be in direct conversation about the matters. ... I suggest you take this step."
The parishioner rejected the suggestion.
Now in his early 30s, the older of the two boys told the
When Johnson invited the two to
The younger of the two boys could not be reached for comment. It was not clear whether he accompanied Johnson to
In
But that wasn't the entire story, said
She said top archdiocese officials were under so much pressure to remove Johnson from Guardian Angels that they made him a deal: Leave the parish in exchange for full salary and benefits, plus about
A regular priest's salary does not include such a housing allowance.
Officially, at age 60, Johnson took a medical leave from
As of
Haselberger resigned from her job in
'POSITIVE INFLUENCE'
"He has been an incredibly positive influence in my life, as well as so many other young people who've needed it," Dusbabek said.
Elsen, the janitor who was fired and who later sued, had an affair with a teacher at the school; that's why he was let go, Dusbabek said.
Elsen confirmed the affair, but documents in his court case disclose that Johnson told the archdiocese human resources director in
Dusbabek, a star member of the
Johnson now contributes time and money helping at a school the priest started in
He charged that the archdiocese is hidding pedophiles, but Johnson is not one of them.
"It just breaks my heart to hear that this is coming up again," Dusbabek said. "All he's ever done was to be a good person in someone's life."
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT
When Haselberger learned Johnson was still receiving the equivalent of his full salary, benefits and the housing allowance years after his last parish assignment -- as were several priests accused of child abuse or other misconduct -- she tried to stop the arrangement.
The extra payments were suspended for a short period before Bishop
According to the salary schedule for priests in the archdiocese, posted on its website, an active priest with Johnson's 32 years of service earns nearly
As of last year, Johnson was receiving
The archdiocese disputed those figures.
"The financial arrangements are such that you are better off as a priest messing up than when you were doing your job," Haselberger said.
In fact, Haselberger said in her affidavit, McDonough argued that Johnson was "an example of the success that could be achieved" by doing something other than removing a troublesome priest from the priesthood.
"I strongly objected to the categorization of the resolution of this matter as a 'success', given that we had given Father (Johnson) a significant amount of money to which he was not entitled to effect a result that could have been achieved at no cost," had imposed no restrictions on him, had made no warnings about their concerns, had not required him to be monitored and "had given him free time and financial wherewithal to pursue his inappropriate activities elsewhere," she wrote.
McDonough did not respond to a request for comment.
Johnson told Haselberger he needed the extra payments for "travel he was doing to an orphanage or school in
The archdiocese said this week that Johnson's salary was
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