Victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson is calling on the Vatican to remove Bishop Michael Hoeppner as head of the Diocese of Crookston — pointing to depositions indicating Hoeppner didn’t remove several priests with histories of sexual abuse of young parishioners. Anderson says in 2012 Hoeppner wrote the archdiocese that he was unaware of anything in Monsingor Roger Grundhaus’s background which would make him unsuitable to work with children, despite allegations that Grundhaus abused a young parishioner in the early 1970s.
In a recorded deposition released along with others today, Anderson asks Hoeppner, “Wouldn’t the accusation Ron Vasek made to you, his lips to your ears, that Grundhaus had abused him as a teenager disqualify him from ministry?” Hoeppner responded, “Mr. Vasek asked for complete confidentiality and did not want to bring forward an accusation, and I respected that.”
The Diocese says Bishop Hoeppner has fully cooperated with a preliminary investigation by Archbishop Bernard Hebda.