After an investigation into Father Kevin McDonough’s work addressing clergy sex abuse allegations in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for nearly two decades, a review board has recommended that some of his actions as vicar general should bar him from leadership roles in the archdiocese, but that he is considered fit for his current parish ministry assignment.

Father McDonough served in safe environment leadership positions from 1995 to 2013, first while the archdiocese’s vicar general and moderator of the curia from 1991 to 2008, and then as leader of the archdiocese’s Office for Protection of Children. His duties included overseeing investigations into clergy sex abuse allegations and providing services to victim-survivors.

In a June 3 statement, Tim O’Malley, the archdiocese’s director of ministerial standards and safe environment, stated that over the years, “some have questioned whether he (Father McDonough) properly exercised his authority during that timeframe,” which included decision-making about the since-laicized priest Curtis Wehmeyer. (See below: “How we got here.”)

In June 2015, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office filed a civil petition and criminal charges against the archdiocese for failing to protect children from Wehmeyer. Those charges were resolved in December 2015 and July 2016, respectively, in part through an agreement between the RCAO and the archdiocese that outlined actions the archdiocese would take or continue to strengthen its safe environment standards, which included the RCAO’s oversight for four years.

As the legal matters were being resolved, the archdiocese’s Ministerial Review Board, which reviews all cases of clergy misconduct in the archdiocese, was tasked with investigating Father McDonough’s role in the archdiocesan sexual abuse crisis.

“The MRB serves as a consultative body to advise the Archbishop and his staff regarding clergy misconduct,” O’Malley said in the June 3 statement. “One of its duties is to examine allegations of misconduct against priests and then make recommendations to the Archbishop and the Director of the Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment (OMSSE) regarding the priest’s fitness to engage in ministry.”

The MRB consists of 10 members, including seven lay people, one priest, one deacon and one sister. One is a victim-survivor of clergy sexual abuse. Three have law degrees. One is a medical doctor, and two are psychologists. Nine are Catholic. The non-Catholic is Patty Wetterling, child advocate and mother of Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in 1989. The Board’s chairperson, Jeri Boisvert, is the former head of the Minnesota Office of Justice and a longtime parishioner of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

According to the statement, the MRB’s investigation of Father McDonough’s role in the archdiocese’s sexual abuse crisis was “comprehensive” and “exhaustive.”

“Investigators reviewed thousands of pages of memoranda, emails, letters, depositions, policies, statements, publications, police reports and court filings” and interviewed 16 witnesses, said O’Malley, a former judge and Minnesota law enforcement leader who joined the archdiocese’s leadership in 2014 to overhaul its safe environment efforts.

“All information gathered was provided to the MRB by these investigators,” he said. “In addition, two victim-survivors of clergy sexual abuse appeared before the MRB to provide information and express their concerns regarding Father McDonough. Additionally, the OMSSE provided the MRB with detailed information regarding Father McDonough’s interactions with specific offending priests, including some of the priests cited by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in its criminal and civil complaints.”

O’Malley said that Father McDonough participated in the investigation process. “He was given access to the same information and the questions that had been raised concerning his conduct, and he was permitted to provide his explanation and rationale,” he said. “Father McDonough appeared before the MRB and responded to all questions posed by MRB members.”

The MRB concluded “that Father McDonough had not always demonstrated sufficiently sound judgment in handling allegations of ministerial misconduct or in attending to his duties to prevent harm and create safer environments,” O’Malley said.

“Although the Board found that Father McDonough did not intend for harm to occur, they concluded that harm did occur,” he said. “In addition, based on concerns about Father McDonough’s past conduct while in leadership, the MRB also concluded that Father McDonough failed, albeit not intentionally, to adequately keep children safe and recommended that he should be barred from similar leadership roles at the Archdiocesan level going forward.”

They also found that Father McDonough “does not present a risk” and recommended he “be considered fit for his current assignment” as pastor of Incarnation in Minneapolis, where he has ministered since 2008.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda has spoken with Father McDonough and has accepted the MRB’s recommendation, O’Malley said.

“The MRB also urged Father McDonough to consider his level of responsibility and take steps to promote greater healing in the Archdiocese, including participating in a restorative justice effort,” O’Malley said. “As an effort toward this goal, in May of 2021, retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and restorative justice expert Janine Geske facilitated a restorative justice session in which Father McDonough, two survivors of clergy sexual abuse, and two priests participated.”

Geske has been assisting the archdiocese since 2018 with wider restorative justice efforts, including healing circles with victim-survivors, clergy and laity.

Father McDonough declined to comment beyond the archdiocese’s statement. He was ordained in 1980 and was a longtime pastor of St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, overlapping for a time with his assignment to Incarnation. He is known for being an attentive pastor and advocate for Black and Latino Catholics.

In a statement to The Catholic Spirit, Archbishop Hebda said he is grateful to the MRB for taking on the investigation and, based on his experience of their work, has “great confidence” in their recommendations.

“I was saddened to hear once again details of the ways in which the Church at times failed those who had come forward to say that they had suffered abuse,” he said. “Although the MRB found that the failings were not intentional, the resulting negative consequences in our community were profound. Again, I express my deepest apologies to those who were harmed.”

He noted that today “we have a much better understanding of the extent of the harm that was caused by priests and others who abused minors, in no small part due to the brave survivors and their families who have come forward. They have helped us to adjust our priorities.”

“The work that two decades ago fell to Father McDonough as vicar general is now undertaken by a team of 10 laypeople, with solid professional backgrounds in civil law, canon law, law enforcement, safe environments and survivor outreach,” Archbishop Hebda said. “I am grateful that the faithful of the archdiocese have enabled us to both bring about meaningful change and continue to improve our standards.”

HOW WE GOT HERE

Curtis Wehmeyer, who was arrested in 2012, has pleaded guilty to abusing three brothers, parishioners of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul where he ministered as a priest from 2006 to 2012. In October 2013, the St. Paul Police Department began an investigation into archdiocesan leadership’s handling of the case.

Its findings revealed, through documents and depositions, that Father Kevin McDonough and others were aware of several instances of misconduct by Wehmeyer, which, although not sexual abuse, raised serious concerns about his fitness for ministry. They also were aware that he had been accused of breaking archdiocesan safe environment policy by camping alone with minors, and they had received reports of concern from laity and clergy about Wehmeyer’s interactions with others.

The police investigation into Wehmeyer’s abuse led to an archdiocesan task force commissioning an outside firm to review its clergy files for sexual abuse claims and the disclosure in December 2013 of 33 names of priests credibly accused of abuse. That list has since grown to more than 100 priests, 43 of them with allegations that occurred outside the archdiocese.

Also in 2013, the Minnesota State Legislature lifted for three years the statute of limitations on historic sexual abuse claims, which resulted in more than 450 claims of clergy sexual abuse against the archdiocese. The archdiocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2015, which was resolved in December 2018, with a $210 million settlement for victim-survivors, some of whom have publicly criticized Father McDonough’s handling of their allegations.

In June 2015, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office filed a civil complaint and criminal charges against the archdiocese alleging that the archdiocese had failed to protect children from Wehmeyer.

Those charges precipitated the resignation that same month of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche as archdiocesan leaders, and the Holy See’s assigning Archbishop Bernard Hebda to oversee the archdiocese. Father McDonough was among former archdiocesan leaders whose actions were detailed in the charges, although the RCAO did not charge any individuals in the case.