A man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest decades ago wants
the Catholic Church to turn over the names of suspected pedophiles.
David Pususta said he was a
10-year-old altar boy when the abuse began in the 1960s.
Pususta, now
62, was living with his family in Waverly, a central Minnesota town
where life revolved around St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Everyone trusted
the priest, Father John Brown -- including Pususta's parents. That's how
the abuse started, he said.
"He actually called up my parents,
asked them if I would come up to the rectory," Pususta recalled. "It was
a warm summer night, I remember. And my dad was very religious. There
was two powerful people in Waverly. There was the banker and the parish
priest. Those were the two most powerful people."
He said Father Brown lied about the reason for the visit.
"He was going to talk about the
birds and the bees," Pususta said. "So he was even then, he was
gathering the confidence from my parents, so I went up there. We never
talked about the birds and bees."
Instead, Pususta said, Brown touched him sexually.
Pususta said it happened several
times, but he did not tell anyone because he was ashamed. He stopped
going to church and stopped believing in God.
"I just didn't think that there
could be such a entity that would do such a thing to me or other kids,"
he said.
Brown, now 92, lives in a nursing
home in St. Paul. He uses a walker and spends his time reading the Bible
and watching old movies.
The priest, who retired in 1991, said he still remembers a boy named David.
"Years ago, when I was young and
foolish, I did not abuse them," Brown said. "However I looked at their
genitals. I did not touch their genitals at all though. Was careful not
to do that at all. It's stupid. I know that. But again, I look back, I
did not handle, I did not fondle them at all."
Brown said he looked at the boys out
of "pure stupidity" -- not because he was sexually attracted to them.
"It should not have been done," he said.
At a news conference Wednesday in
St. Paul, attorney Jeff Anderson said he filed a request with a Ramsey
County judge on behalf of Pususta.
Anderson wants the judge to unseal
the names of 33 priests the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says
have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
The names are already
in court records as part of an earlier lawsuit, but they're sealed and
cannot be released without a court order.
Anderson praised Pususta for coming forward.
"It is this kind of courage that we
are grateful for because until these names are known and
until this list
and others like it in Minnesota are released by the bishops, the
community cannot be warned about Brown, whether he's on the list or not,
and others like him," Anderson said.
"And know that there are perils
that are yet to be known."
Similar efforts by Anderson have failed in the past.
However, a new state law allows victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue.
Anderson hopes new lawsuits will make the names public.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and
Minneapolis does not want the list made public. It released a statement
today calling sexual abuse "absolutely unacceptable."
Archdiocese
officials said many of the allegations against the 33 priests on the
list are decades old, and some of the priests are dead.
None of the priests on the list has
been in active ministry for at least 10 years, its statement said.