The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced today that they were removing temporarily Father Joseph Gallatin and Father Mark Wehmann for claims of inappropriate interactions with minors. Gallatin has been serving as pastor at the Church of St. Peter in Mendota since 2008. Wehmann has been serving as pastor at St. Boniface in Minneapolis and also at Fairview University Hospital in Minneapolis. Previously he was at Church of St. Bridget of Sweden (Lindstrom). Neither name was on the list recently released by the Archdiocese.
According to the St Paul Pioneer Press:
A consulting firm that has been reviewing diocesan files identified the incidents.
Gallatin, who has been serving as a pastor at the Church of St. Peter since July 2008, was found to have had one incident of inappropriate conduct with a minor several years ago that involved a “boundary violation.” The incident did not involve a crime, the consulting firm said.
Wehmann, who has served as a pastor at St. Boniface since July 2013, was also found to have had inappropriate conduct with minors, but in several cases. The consulting firm said law enforcement had been informed about “most of these” in the past, and no criminal charges were filed. The archdiocese recently informed law enforcement about the remaining incidents. Until recently, Wehmann was a part-time chaplain at Fairview University Hospital in Minneapolis.
Update: The First week in September the Church announced action on Gallatin:
- Rev. Joseph Gallatin removed from ministry activities
The names continue to be disclosed, there are more lists that exist in Minnesota, and there are many more names to find.
Abuse of children and the continued silence by the offenders needs to be prevented. If you suffered, saw, or suspected such events, it is important to know that there is help out there.
A founding partner with Bradshaw & Bryant, Mike Bryant has always fought to find justice for his clients—knowing that legal troubles, both personal injury and criminal, can be devastating for a family. Voted a Top 40 Personal Injury "Super Lawyer" multiple years, Mr. Bryant has also been voted one of the Top 100 Minnesota "Super Lawyers" four times.
5 Comments
Robert
Interesting....we had a feeling that Wehmann was slime when dealing with him at St Bridgets! He was too big into confession, you know where they can be alone with someone. Went with our guts and didn't allow our kids to attend. Thank God!
Felicity
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. People writing comments that are unfounded need to look at themselves in the mirror before they make judgements. Maybe you do need confession
Jessica
Father Wehmann is and was an EXCELLENT priest at St.Bridget's of Sweden while we attend still and did so for his entire time there. He IS 'big' into confession for a good reason!! We as sinners NEED it! The previous poster forgot to mention that he also had a lot of remodeling done to our church INCLUDING the updating of our Confessional which was never two rooms before but is now up to code as to SEPARATE ROOMS with a tiny window a screen between and a light to tell the people waiting when the priest is in the room. I will stand by him no matter what anyone says because he helped my husband and I mend our marriage when it was close to the brink, and even helped me to give a better more heartfelt confession. Great sense of humor, GREAT with the kids and NOT in a 'weird way' AT ALL. I'm betting these allegations are nothing but made up belligerency from people who want to be on the band wagon bad mouthing priests and trying to trash talk the church.
Mike Bryant
I appreciate and respect all of the comments. This is an unprecedented public move by the Church. Neither Priest was on the earlier lists, and neither has been criminally charged. So we will see over time what direction these actions take.
Mike Bryant
Ok thanks for reading
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