The former Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis priest was served with laicization paperwork today to formally remove him from the priesthood
(St. Paul, MN) – Today’s announcement of Curtis Wehmeyer’s removal from the clerical state by the Vatican is met with a mixed view from sexual abuse survivors and their advocates. While it is comforting to know a child molester is behind bars and will never be placed in a position of trust as a cleric again, questions still remain.
- Why haven’t more offenders been removed by the Vatican?
- Why haven’t more clerics been prosecuted given the volume of information that has been provided to prosecutors by reason of the Child Victims Act, including tens of thousands of pages of files, depositions, and testimony taken under oath in the civil cases?
Answers to these questions are needed by the many survivors who have courageously come forward and the survivors who continue to live in silence and shame and were harmed by these offenders.
Curtis Wehmeyer is currently serving a five-year prison term for the sexual abuse of two boys in Minnesota and for possession of child pornography. In November 2014, Wehmeyer was charged with second-degree sexual assault of a teenage boy he abused while on a camping trip to Brunet Island State Park in Wisconsin.