Edit: this priest appears to have been a furtive creeper for years in his ministry, according to an earlier report by Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Feminist S-Lib Jennifer Haselberger, who was once the Archbishop Nienstedt’s subaltern and advisor on canon law, and file clerk, got access to the Diocese files in 2008, and took her job as file clerk very seriously. She called on the diocese to remove problematic priests, like Lawrence Johnson, from ministry. I always thought it was ironic she had a picture of Oscar Wilde lovingly mounted on her office wall. She was later attacked as being a disgruntled former employee.
She and others noted that Father Johnson was reported numerous occasions for suspicious behavior around boys in his parish, taking them on holidays to Cancun, only the Archdiocese authorities didn’t see the behavior as problematic enough to sideline this man.
Did Father McDonaugh, who was once rector of the Archdiocese, look at Johnson’s computer for his investigation?
Whatever the case, this looks like another bad mark for the Archdiocese, which had this retired priest in ministry.
It could be that Johnson was helping the 32 year old man who choked him to death, but it’s also very possible that his past finally caught up with him.
[Star Tribune] Murder charges filed Friday allege a St. Paul man strangled a 76-year-old priest on the side of Interstate 94 Thursday while en route to a mental health evaluation with the suspect telling police voices told him to commit the act.
Ramsey County prosecutors charged Nathan Thomas Wondra, 32, of St. Paul with second-degree murder in the killing of the Rev. Lawrence Johnson. Authorities arrested Wondra moments after he said voices told him to strangle Johnson in order to “save humanity.”
Wondra appeared in court Friday and is scheduled for another hearing Monday. His bail is set at $2 million. State court records show no civil commitments for Wondra related to his mental health.
According to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Johnson was ordained as a priest in 1975 and retired in 2009. He served at parishes throughout the metro, as well as southern Minnesota and most recently for seven years at Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Chaska.
In a message sent by Archbishop Bernard Hebda to priests and deacons, Hebda asked for prayers “for the repose of the soul of our brother, Father Larry Johnson.”
“Please know that you, and the soul of Father Johnson, are in my prayers as we learn more about what happened in the coming days and work through this very tragic and difficult situation together.”
AMDG
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