Matthew “Matti” Feeney, former youth minister at St. Joseph Church in St. Joseph, Minnesota was arrested this morning. [ View ]
In 1992, Feeney was convicted of Criminal Sexual Conduct (4th Degree), for an incident involving a member of the St. Joseph Church community.
According to a book on the history of the church in St. Joseph, “Rooted in Christ, the Living Stone” by Sister Owen Lindblad:
“In 1992, there was a criminal charge of child sexual molestation by a parish youth minister. The lawsuit was covered by insurance but in 1995 the case was dismissed from court due to insufficient evidence. Father Tom [Gillespie] declared, ‘The whole ordeal was extremely difficult for everyone concerned.'” (Page 56)
In an email dated October 26, 2010, Matthew Feeney said that he was interviewed by the FBI (about Saint John’s Abbey Monk Father Thomas Gillespie and others) regarding the Jacob Wetterling abduction.
Feeney wrote:
“Fr. Gillespie and I didn’t get along, never did and never will… I never even heard rumors of his criminal actions until the FBI called me years later. Even tho nobody knew about me, from what I know now, if he suspected anything about me he probably perceived me as “competition” because he did his best to ride me out of town.”
