Brooklyn Park priest on leave pending investigation
Published 10:13 am Wednesday, March 23, 2016
MINNEAPOLIS — A suburban Minneapolis priest has agreed to go on paid leave while Pennsylvania authorities investigate whether there was a cover-up of sexual abuse by someone in his Catholic order.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis says the Rev. Bradley Baldwin, priest of the Church of St. Gerard in Brooklyn Park, accepted a request Tuesday to take the leave from his order, the Franciscan Friars.
Interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Gerard says Baldwin’s leave will be in effect until investigators determine “his level of supervision concerning” Brother Stephen Baker, who killed himself in 2013 amid accusations that he sexually abused numerous boys in the 1980s.
This is the second known Minnesota connection to the Baker case.