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, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said he wasn't sure whether he knew it was illegal for adults to have sex with children when he served as chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1980s.  

Former church chancellor reveals little in deposition

Clergy abuse, cover-up and crisis in the Twin Cities Catholic church


But the Archdiocese of St. Louis is contesting news coverage of Carlson's testimony. In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the archdiocese claimed "recent inaccurate and misleading reporting by certain media outlets has impugned Archbishop Carlson's good name and reputation."

Response to coverage of Carlson's deposition

Carlson, 69  — who served from 1970 to 1994 in the Twin Cities archdiocese — was questioned under oath last month as part of a lawsuit that alleges the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona created a public nuisance by keeping information on abusive priests secret. 

In its Wednesday news release, the Archdiocese of St. Louis pointed specifically to two exchanges in the deposition, involving St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing the plaintiff in the case, Carlson and Carlson's attorney, Charles Goldberg. The St. Louis archdiocese says the dialogue involved Carlson's knowledge of Minnesota child abuse reporting statutes, and when clergy became mandatory reporters of abuse allegations — not the legality of an adult having sex with a child.

"During a press conference held on June 9, 2014, Plaintiff's lawyer strategically took Archbishop Carlson's response to a question out of context and suggested that the Archbishop did not know that it was a criminal offense for an adult to molest a child," the St. Louis archdiocese's statement said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

The St. Louis archdiocese didn't dispute reporting on Carlson's testimony in its first public response to the story Monday afternoon. In fact, the archdiocese appeared to underscore Carlson's testimony that he might not have known it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a child. 

"In this most recent deposition, while not being able to recall his knowledge of the law exactly as it was many decades ago, the Archbishop did make clear that he knows child sex abuse is a crime today," spokesperson Gabe Jones said in an emailed statement.

That earlier statement made no mention of mandated reporting.

 in its coverage of the deposition's release. 


In the first exchange cited by the  St. Louis archdiocese, Carlson 

is asked if he considered himself to be a mandated reporter

. The question arose in the context of victim Greg Riedle, 

a meeting with whose parents Carlson discussed in a 1984 memo to then-Archbishop John Roach

Later in his testimony, after an hourlong break and dozens of questions covering memos Carlson had sent, intentions of the archdiocese and matters of responsibility in the matter, Carlson addresses whether or not he knew that adults engaging in sex with children was a crime. 

direct excerpt from the deposition transcript


The release of Carlson's testimony in the Minnesota case Monday has garnered significant attention and news coverage in St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

 questioning Carlson's inability to remember specifics from his time as chancellor in the Twin Cities. "He has utterly squandered his credibility," it said.


Carlson also faces a massive clergy abuse lawsuit in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he's served since 2009. The case, 

, involves a similarly aggressive fight over the release of documents and the names of offenders dating back decades. One document made public in the case shows that more than 100 priests and church employees have been accused of abuse, and the Missouri Supreme Court has ordered the archdiocese to turn over the names of abusers under seal.

Members of two groups — the Association for the Rights of Catholics and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — 


 in front of St. Louis' Cathedral Basilica at 2 p.m. to protest Carlson's comments.

Carlson left the Twin Cities to become the coadjutor bishop of Sioux Falls in 1994 and became the bishop there the following year. He was appointed in 2004 as bishop of Saginaw, Mich., and named archbishop of St. Louis in 2009.

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Crime, Law and Justice

Religion and Faith

MPR News Staff

Author

Meg Martin

In a deposition released Monday, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said he wasn't sure whether he knew it was illegal for adults to have sex with children when he served as chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the 1980s. The St. Louis archdiocese is contesting the assertion, saying reporting on the remarks has taken them out of context.

St. Louis archdiocese: Reporting on deposition 'has impugned Archbishop Carlson's good name'

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