By Emily Gurnon

Pioneer Press

A Ramsey County judge has stated that he is not sure church officials need court permission to release names of priests accused of sexually abusing children.

John Nienstedt, archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said Nov. 11 that upon “permission of the relevant court” he would be “disclosing the names, locations and status of priests who are currently living in the archdiocese, and who we know have substantiated claims against them of committing sexual abuse against minors.”

In 2009, as a part of the case of alleged abuse victim John Doe 76C against the Rev. Thomas Adamson, Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson ordered the archdiocese to release its list of 33 “credibly accused” priests to the plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Anderson.

The archdiocese did so, but petitioned the court to seal the list. Johnson agreed. Since then, Anderson has been trying to get the names released.

The issue is now before Judge John Van de North. Van de North will preside over a hearing Monday morning in a case of another man, identified as John Doe 1, who alleges abuse by Adamson while the priest served at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in St. Paul Park.

John Doe 1 claims the archdiocese moved Adamson from parish to parish without warning families despite his prior admissions of sexual abuse of children.

The plaintiff wants the list of “credibly accused” priests released.

In a Nov. 18 order, Van de North said, “To the extent it is required (something not entirely clear to the court), ‘permission of the relevant court’ may be obtainable from this court, or from the Honorable Gregg Johnson,” who previously sealed the list.

Johnson may be “the relevant court” for purposes of modifying his sealing order, Van de North wrote.

“The archdiocese has no interest in delaying disclosure,” the attorney for the archdiocese wrote in response to Van de North’s order. But it was concerned about the scope of disclosure sought by the plaintiff, which includes not only the names of accused priests but “each priest’s history of abuse, each such priest’s pattern of grooming and sexual behavior and his last known address,” according to the lawsuit.

And archdiocese attorney Thomas Wieser accused Jeff Anderson and Associates of publicizing on its website the names of 20 priests from the list.

“The archdiocese was not consulted before that information was publicly displayed on that website, does not agree to that disclosure, and is concerned that publication of that information is contrary to the (sealing) order,” Wieser wrote Monday to the court.

Anderson wrote to the judge Monday that the archbishop has not promised to release all 33 names on the list. Rather, he said, Nienstedt indicated he would release names pending completion of a file review of priests and that it would be only priests currently living in the archdiocese.