A treatment center for abusive priests is among the targets of a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a man who said he was victimized by a Minnesota priest who had been treated there.
Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul attorney who filed the suit on behalf of "Doe 27," said it is the first lawsuit under Minnesota's new Child Victims Act to name St. Luke Institute as a defendant.
The center in Silver Spring, Md., has been a destination for the treatment of Minnesota Catholic monks and priests accused of sexual abuse of children, other sexual misconduct and addiction. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and St. John's Abbey in Collegeville also are named in the suit.
Anderson said at a news conference Tuesday that St. Luke "has been on our radar" for years. "They give priests 'fit-to-serve' labels that the bishops then use to continue the systemic pattern of secrecy."
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Dakota County, involves the Rev. Francis Hoefgen, now 63. Coupled with a separate clergy sex abuse suit filed Monday, the archdiocese has been sued at least 21 times since the Child Victims Act lifted the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases and gave past victims a three-year window to bring previously barred claims.
Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for St. Luke Institute, said she had not seen the lawsuit involving Hoefgen and could not comment. The archdiocese issued a statement saying it was investigating the claims.
Brother Aelred Senna, a spokesman for St. John's Abbey, said abbey officials can't comment on the lawsuit but believe "any form of sexual abuse to be morally reprehensible and a violation of our vow to a celibate and chaste life." He said Hoefgen voluntarily left the St. John's order in 2011 and is no longer a monk or priest.
Hoefgen, who now lives in Columbia Heights, did not answer his door or return several phone calls Tuesday.