ST. CLOUD (AP) — A woman who said she was sexually abused by a priest says the St. Cloud Diocese knew about her allegations for almost a decade while the priest volunteered at St. Cloud Hospital.
Susan Fuchs-Hoeschen said she told the diocese in 1994 that the Rev. Donald Rieder, who was then priest at St. John Cantius, had abused her and her sister as children.
Fuchs-Hoeschen said her allegations were presented to then-vicar general Monsignor Daniel Taufen and he promised her that Rieder would not be allowed to minister to the public.
But Rieder’s priestly duties weren’t revoked until last April when he also left his volunteer job at St. Cloud Hospital after different allegations of sexual abuse surfaced.
Bishop John Kinney said on Tuesday he didn’t know about Fuchs-Hoeschen’s allegations until this past summer. He was unsure why the 1994 allegations were not in Rieder’s personnel file, Kinney told the St. Cloud Times.
Kinney became bishop in 1995, a year after Fuchs-Hoeschen said she first contacted the diocese about being sexually abused by Rieder at age 10 at a Paynesville parish in 1973.
Last week, a former parishioner at St. John Cantius sued Rieder and the diocese, alleging that Rieder abused her from 1988 until about 1995.
Fuchs-Hoeschen said her 1994 complaint to the diocese was in Rieder’s file this past April and Vicar General Marvin Enneking read it to her over the phone.
Her account of meetings with Taufen, including a confrontation with Rieder, also have been corroborated by abuse advocate Maxine Barnett, who was at those meetings with Fuchs-Hoeschen, Rieder and Taufen, the St. Cloud Times reported Wednesday.
Taufen and Enneking could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
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St. Cloud woman says diocese knew about sexual abuse allegations
Posted: Wednesday, December 11, 2002
