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They called him the Polka Padre. Later, they called him the Polka Predator. For decades, the Rev. Robert Kapoun charmed parishioners with his accordion at “polka masses” across Minnesota. Privately, he took young boys to saunas, rectories and a secluded cabin in Cold Spring and sexually assaulted them, according to court testimony. Parents complained but leaders at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis did little to stop him. Kapoun remained in ministry until 1996, the year a lawsuit brought by Dale Scheffler, one of his victims, went to trial. It was the biggest clergy sex abuse cas…

A retired police officer with expertise in Internet sex crimes against kids, a law professor and a sex-abuse psychologist are among six lay people who had their first meeting Wednesday as members of a new task force looking into clergy sexual ­misconduct and how the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has responded. The task force was named following allegations last week that archdiocesan leaders mishandled situations involving a priest who confessed to sexually assaulting two boys and is in prison as well as another priest who may have had child pornography on his computer. One of …

News ReleaseOctober 8, 2013 Hearing Tomorrow at 1PM in Crookston Regarding Release of Secret List of Priests with Credible Allegations of Sexual Abuse The Diocese of Crookston seeks to throw out efforts to make public the Diocese’s list of known child predators (Crookston, MN) – Tomorrow at 1:00PM in a Polk County courtroom, a sexual abuse survivor, along with her attorneys, will request the public release of a secret list possessed and maintained by the Diocese of Crookston that contains the names of several priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse. Judge Tamara Yon will hear…

Roman Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis drafted a letter to the Vatican last year asking whether pornography found on a Hugo priest’s computer could “expose the archdiocese, as well as myself, to criminal prosecution,” according to a copy obtained by Minnesota Public Radio. The letter was provided to St. Paul police by Jennifer Haselberger, a former archdiocese official who said it was never mailed. In a letter to Cardinal William Levada, Nienstedt said the pornographic images were found on the Rev. Jonathan Shelley’s computer hard drive…

A day after Duluth Bishop Paul Sirba told parishioners that he is “completely committed” to assisting victims of clergy sexual misconduct, a St. Paul mother accused him of participating in a coverup involving a priest who abused two of her boys. “There’s nothing Catholic about it. There’s nothing Christian about it. There’s nothing decent about it,” the mother said Monday in an interview with the Star Tribune. She was referring in part to a phone call she received from Sirba in 2009, when he was vicar general of the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese. She said Sirba called her after learning…

Archbishop John Nienstedt was in the middle of a heated political fight over same-sex marriage in February of last year when he learned of a disturbing secret, hidden in the basement of the chancery — pornography from a priest’s computer, some of which appeared to depict children. Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the…

A retired Catholic priest who served much of his career in the Northland has been removed from ministry after an accusation of child sexual abuse more than a generation ago. The Diocese of Duluth announced Sunday that the Rev. Cornelius Kelleher “has recently been credibly accused in the sexual abuse of a minor female during his time as pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Chisholm from 1975 to 1986.” A statement from the diocese said that when the accusation came to light, Kelleher was immediately removed from public ministry and has been stripped of his abilities to function as a priest in ret…

  Archbishop John Nienstedt kept a relatively low profile on clergy sexual abuse until last week. Now he finds himself overseeing an archdiocese scrambling to react to charges of a pornography coverup inside his chancery. Nienstedt’s top deputy resigned abruptly Thursday in response to an allegation that he covered up evidence of child pornography on a computer owned by a Hugo priest. The accusation came from attorney Jennifer Haselberger, a former high-ranking lay official within the archdiocese. And it followed her earlier accusation that the archdiocese overlooked for nearly a decad…

An attorney for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said Friday that neither police investigators nor a computer forensics expert found evidence to support allegations by a former archdiocesan employee that one of its priests had viewed child pornography on his computer. Tom Wieser, an attorney for the archdiocese, said some “false inferences” have been drawn from police reports that seem to imply that child pornography was found on the priest’s old hard drive. The St. Paul police, Ramsey County and Washington County all indicated they would consider new investigations should evidenc…

News ReleaseOctober 4, 2013  Former Shattuck-St. Mary’s Teacher Lynn Seibel Sentenced to 52-month Prison Term Today  New details emerge in second sexual abuse lawsuit filed (Faribault, MN) – A Rice County judge sentenced former Shattuck-St. Mary’s teacher Lynn Seibel, to 52 months in prison today after Seibel pled guilty in July for sexually abusing six male students at the elite private boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota. As an AP Drama teacher and dorm parent, Seibel encouraged “naked dance parties,” showed students pornography, and held group masturbation sessions with …