Donald Dummer
On October 23, 2014 Father Donald Dummer’s name was publicly released by the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis as a priest with substantiated claims of the sexual abuse of minors. Dummer and 16 other priests were disclosed to the public as part of the settlement of the Doe 1 vs. Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and Diocese of Winona civil lawsuit. On November 12, 2014 Dummer’s priest file was released to the public.
Father Donald Dummer was ordained an Oblate of Mary Immaculate in 1964 and spent the first 30 years of his career as a priest working in parishes in Richfield and St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1997 a parish employee at St. Mary’s Parish in St. Paul discovered movies in Dummer’s room containing videos of nude, minor boys. The employee notified the Archdiocese about the videos and sent them to then-Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough who claimed he would handle the issue. Nothing further was heard about the matter.
Again in 1998 additional movies were discovered in Dummer’s room at St. Mary’s and again the videos were reported to and dropped off at the Archdiocese’s Chancery. When the parish employee did not hear back from Fr. McDonough, the employee called McDonough who stated he had destroyed the videos.
In 2002 the Vatican Embassy was notified of the video located in Father Dummer’s residence. The embassy requested that in any further consultation the archbishop might have, that he not reference the Vatican’s Embassy in order to maintain confidentiality.
Father Dummer’s Superior, Father Hitpas, OMI was also notified of the video discovered in Dummer’s residence and indicated he would destroy the videos in a 2002 letter to then-Archbishop Harry Flynn.
On September 29, 2006 Father Dummer’s faculties to minister were withdrawn and his position as Chaplain at Regions Hospital was terminated. He allegedly left the archdiocese in 2010.
Father Donald Dummer worked at the following locations during his tenure in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:
- 1975: Associate Pastor, Church of the Assumption, Richfield, MN
- 1979: Vicar Substitute, Church of the Assumption, Richfield, MN
- 1980:Temporary Administrator, Church of the Assumption, Richfield, MN
- 1996: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN
- 1996: In residence, St. Mary’s Parish, St. Paul, MN
- 1997: Chaplain, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, St. Paul, MN (Regions)