Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston

The Diocese of Crookston was erected on December 31, 1909, by Pope Pius X with territory taken from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul.[2][3] The pope named Reverend Timothy J. Corbett of Saint Paul as the first bishop of Crookston.[4] During his 28-year tenure, Corbett established over 50 churches and 12 schools through soliciting funds.[1] Corbett resigned in 1938.

Pope Pius XI in 1938 selected Reverend John Peschges of the Diocese of Winona as the second bishop of Crookston.[5] Peschges established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, a program of religious courses for rural youth, in the diocese and founded other organizations for agricultural development.[1]

After Peschges died in 1944, Pope Pius XII in 1945 appointed Monsignor Francis Schenk of Saint Paul to succeed him.[6] During his tenure in Crookston, Schenk established over 30 new churches, founded Our Northland Diocese newspaper, and organized diocesan offices of the Catholic Social Service Agency and the Catholic Youth Organization.[1] He also founded summer boarding schools for children of the thousands of Mexican migrant workers who worked in the diocese.[1] In 1960, Peschges became bishop of the Diocese of Duluth.

The next bishop of Crookston was Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Glenn of Duluth, appointed by Pope John XXIII in 1960. Glenn retired as bishop ten years later.[7] To succeed Glenn, Pope Paul VI named Reverend Kenneth Povish of the Diocese of Saginaw in 1970.[8] During his five-year tenure, Povish implemented the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, establishing parish councils in each parish and a pastoral council for the diocese.[1] He also supported liturgical reform and the ecumenical movement.[9]

Povish became bishop of the Diocese of Lansing in 1975. Paul VI replaced him in 1976 in Crookston with Reverend Victor Balke from the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Balke retired in 2007 after 31 years as bishop of Crookston.[10][11]

Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 appointed Michael Hoeppner of the Diocese of Winona as the next bishop of Crookston.[12] Following a Vatican investigation of Hoeppener for coercing a sexual abuse victim, Pope Francis ordered his resignation as the bishop of Crookston. The pope accepted it on April 13, 2021.[13][14]

As of 2023, the current bishop of the Diocese of Crookston is Andrew Cozzens, formerly an auxiliary bishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He was appointed by Francis in late 2021.[15]

In 2006, a teenage girl accused Reverend Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul of raping and sodomizing her on many occasions in Greenbush when she was age 14 in 2004 and 2005. He arrived in the diocese as a visiting priest from India in 2004, but returned home in 2005 to visit a sick relative. Bishop Balke then revoked permission for Jeyapaul to return to Crookston. The girl sued the diocese in 2009. The diocese soon received a similar accusation against him from another woman.[16] In November 2014, the United States extradited Jeyapaul from India to face sexual assault charges in Minnesota.[17]Jeyapaul pleaded guilty in May 2015 and was sentenced to one year in prison, followed by deportation to India.[18]

The diocese was sued in 2013 by a man from the White Earth Indian Reservation in the diocese. The plaintiff claimed that he was sexually abused as a young boy in the 1960s by Reverend J. Vincent Fitzgerald.[19]

In 2011, Ronald Vasek, a former diaconate candidate, reported to the diocese that Reverend Roger Grundhaus had sexually abused him when he was a teenager during a trip to Ohio in 1971. In October 2015, Bishop Hoeppner asked Vasek to sing a letter recanting his accusations against Grundhaus, which he did. In May 2017, Vaset sued Hoeppner on ground of coercion, the first such lawsuit ever file against a Catholic bishop in the United States. Vasek claimed that Hoeppner had threatened retaliation against Vasek's son, a priest in the diocese, if he failed to sign the 2015 letter. Vasek said that Hoeppner's actions were like "being abused all over again."[20][21][22]

In September 2017, Vasek, the diocese and Hoeppner reached a legal settlement. As part of the agreement, Hoeppner released the 2015 letter.[23][24] In September 2019, on the direction of the Vatican, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced that he would investigate Hoeppner's actions. This was the first investigation of an American bishop for failing to the follow the sexual abuse procedures in the 2019 papal document Vos estis lux mundi.[25] Pope Francis forced Hoeppner to resign as bishop in 2021.

In July 2019, the diocese announced a $5 million legal settlement with 15 alleged victims of sexual abuse by diocesan clergy.[26]