Community Corner

Three Former SLP Clergy on List of Priests Accused of Sex Abuse

Robert Thurner, Dennis Kampa and Richard Jeub all served as priests in St. Louis Park during the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

Three former St. Louis Park clergymen are on a list of priests “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors in the archdiocese (of St. Paul and Minneapolis),” according to the archdiocese’s newspaper.

  • Dennis Kampa, 81, was at St. Louis Park's Holy Family Catholic Church from 1974 to 1976.

    In 1995 a lawsuit was filed accusing him of abusing a teenage girl in the early 1980s while he was pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Osseo.

    He retired in 2002 and was removed from the ministry in 2003. He is living in Victoria, Minn.

  • Robert Thurner, 81, started his career at Most Holy Trinity Church, as an associate priest and an administrator, from 1951 to 1963.

    In a 1991 deposition, Thurner said he touched the genitals of two underage teen boys in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also wrote a memo to his archbishop saying "that he had a brief sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy and had also purchased liquor for that boy."

    He was removed from the ministry in 2002 and is now living in Maplewood.
  • Richard Jeub, 73, was a chaplain at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park from 1978 to 1982.

    Jeub won a lawsuit in the early 2000s against a woman who accused him of sexually abusing her while she was an adolescent at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina. The woman reportedly turned down a $125,000 settlement offer.

    He was removed from the ministry in 2002 and currently lives in Crosby, Minn.

  • Eugene Corica, 80, a priest who worked at Holy Family from 1985 to 1995, was on a list provided to the John Jay Commission in 2004 by the archdiocese. 

    The archdiocese is now saying that while Corica was accused of having sexual relationships with adult women, no claim of sexual abuse of a minor was made or substantiated against him. 

    Corica left the ministry in 1995 and is now living in Minneapolis.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis published the list of 34 priests Thursday in the online edition of The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper that serves the archdiocese.

About half of the parishes in the archdiocese—92 out of 188 parishes—had one of the priests on the list there at some point, according to the archdiocese.

Find out what's happening in St. Louis Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The publication was made in response to ongoing lawsuits against priests and the church arising from childhood sexual abuse cases. The archdiocese and Diocese of Winona originally sought to seal the list—which was created in 2004 and included 33 of the 34 priests named today, according to the Star Tribune.

The courts agreed to seal the list in 2009. But Archbishop John Nienstedt reversed course after the church was accused of shielding priests—allegations that gained extra fuel in recent months from a Minnesota Public Radio exposé.

Find out what's happening in St. Louis Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The information being released comes mostly from reported incidents that occurred between the mid-1950s and 1980s, according to The Catholic Spirit.

“All have been permanently removed from ministry or are deceased,” the article said.

The church says it is engaged in a comprehensive review of clergy files and will update the list as it makes additional announcements.



    Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

    We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here