Kare 11: ST. PAUL, Minn. – He liked to be called “Father Jerry”.
By his own account, Gerald Funcheon of the Catholic Order of the Holy Cross – the Croisers – started abusing young boys in the 1970’s here in the Twin Cities.
“I suspect, and I don’t remember, it would have been at it St. Odilia’s,” he testified in a 2012 deposition.
“The guy was a wolf,” according to David Bidney, one of kids who says he was abused starting when he was just 10. “They hurt me bad. And they hurt a lot of kids bad.”
In addition to St. Odilia’s in Shoreview, Father Jerry served in parishes and schools in Anoka, Onamia, and St. Cloud plus other assignments literally from coast-to-coast.
Just last week, Father Funcheon’s name was added to the local Archdiocese’s official list of abusive priests.
But we wanted to know: when did church officials actually become aware of his abuse?
According to internal church records we found, it was more than 20 years ago.
This memo is dated October 1st, 1992. By then it says Father Jerry is already in treatment.