As you recall, we have blogged here before about the case of Rev. Ryan Erickson, the Diocese of Superior priest who hung himself last December after being contacted by authorities about a double homicide that had occurred a couple of years previously.

Earlier this week, there was a hearing, the result of which the judge declared that there was strong evidence to suggest that Erickson was responsible for the murders. The investigation had turned up accusations of sexual abuse from before Erickson’s time in seminary and after his ordination, as well as pornography on his computer, and other issues as well. The conclusion was that one of the murdered men was going to confront Erickson about allegations of abuse.

Here is a St. Paul paper account, requires registration.

Before you read this excerpt, as well as the extended post, I’ll just remark on a couple of points. First, there is no "proof" here or conclusive, direct evidence. But I think, based on what we know about this fellow, the seminary and the diocese have a lot to answer for in regard to letting this fellow be ordained. No, you can’t know everything about a person, and yes, some behaviors perhaps are hidden during seminary and only come out after ordination. It’s happened. But the profile of Erickson that has emerged over the past year – sends up all kinds of questions. I can’t remember if it was in these comments boxes or somewhere else that someone mentioned how impressed they were that when they went to Erickson for confession, he wept. News flash: That’s not impressive. That’s an indication of a problem. As is weeping during consecration, etc. That’s not our ideal of priesthood. Sorry.

Also, when these stories first emerged last year, some hay was made about problems within the parish and it was all chalked up to Good Orthodox Priest valiantly struggling against Loser Spirit of Vatican II parishioners. Well, the struggle may have been there, but this is just one more case of not letting the cassock blind you to reality. Just because a priest trumpets his "orthodoxy" doesn’t mean he’s free of serious problems or that he lives what he preaches. And if’s he’s weeping while you’re making your confession – whoa.

Prayers for everyone – especially the families – involved.

Roman Catholic Church officials knew a decade ago of sexual-misconduct allegations against a then-seminarian now presumed to have fatally shot two men in a Hudson, Wis., funeral home, according to court records released this week.

A two-page investigative report by Hudson police outlining the key events in the Rev. Ryan Erickson’s life did not offer details about the abuse allegations, and he was not charged.

But court records in testimony Monday before a St. Croix County judge indicated that Vilas County investigators in northern Wisconsin contacted officials at the Diocese of Superior in 1994 about Erickson, who was attending the seminary at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minn.

After an investigation of a sexual-misconduct allegation, which involved an incident at a summer resort frequented by Erickson as a young man, the county informed the diocese no charge would be filed. Bishop Raphael Fliss acknowledged that decision in a letter in July 1994.

Continuing the St. Paul article:

The court records do not indicate whether the diocese took any other action. Attempts to reach Fliss on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Court records also indicate that in August 1996, the Rev. Phillip Rask, then rector of the St. Paul Seminary where Erickson later enrolled in St. Paul, questioned the Superior diocese about a sexual misconduct allegation against Erickson. Rask could not be reached Tuesday evening.

Questions about Erickson’s past were a central part of Monday’s hearing before St. Croix County Judge Eric Lundell, held to air evidence gathered during an investigation of the February 2002 killings of funeral director Dan O’Connell, 39, and University of Minnesota mortuary science intern James Ellison, 22. At the end of the hearing, Lundell declared the evidence overwhelming that Erickson, then a priest at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Hudson, where O’Connell was a parishioner, was responsible for the killings.

In an interview Tuesday, O’Connell’s survivors described him as a stand-up guy who was about to confront Erickson about suspicions that he had sexually abused children. Now the family says it wants church officials to stand up and account for events that preceded O’Connell’s death.

Officials of the Diocese of Superior, however, said Tuesday they never received a complaint of misconduct involving Erickson, only letters from "conservatives and liberals" at St. Patrick’s indicating he may have been divisive among parishioners.

"We heard nothing in regard to this stuff,” the Rev. Philip Heslin, chief administrator of the diocese, said in an interview.

Under the clergy sex abuse policy passed by U.S. bishops in 2002, a credible accusation against a priest today would result in his removal from ministry.

"What does that mean? That this allegation wasn’t substantiated,” Heslin said.

But the investigative report presented Monday indicated Erickson later had sexual contact with at least one boy in Hudson, provided others with alcohol and downloaded pornography, much of it involving boys.

Erickson underwent several psychological examinations while at the seminary and as a priest, and results were shared with seminary and church officials, according to investigators. There were no details available about who ordered the exams or what they found.

"I understand in general, (the therapists) concluded there was nothing seriously wrong that would impede his ability to be a priest,” Heslin said.

O’Connell’s survivors say they want to know why years of warning signs didn’t bar or remove Erickson from the priesthood.

Erickson, ordained in 2000, was assigned that year to St. Patrick’s. He left the Hudson parish for Ladysmith, Wis., in 2003 and was reassigned to Hurley, Wis., in 2004. Shortly after investigators began questioning him in the funeral home murders, Erickson hanged himself outside his Hurley church last December. He was 31.

"This man committed criminal acts ending in homicide and suicide," said O’Connell’s older brother, Tom O’Connell Jr., 52, of Madison, Wis. "Could this have been prevented?"

The Hudson murders occurred one month after allegations of clergy sexual abuse surfaced in Boston. The scandal would sweep through the church amid an outcry that offending priests had routinely been reassigned from one parish to another after allegations surfaced.

Superior diocese officials reiterated Tuesday that Erickson’s assignments — his first two as an associate, his last as pastor — were routine. It is customary for a priest to leave after three years in his first parish, Heslin said, and after a year in Ladysmith, the need for a pastor arose in Hurley.

"He had been in the diocese long enough to take his own parish,” Heslin said. "It had nothing to do with all these other things.”

The court records indicated, however, that the Rev. John Anderson, pastor at the Ladysmith parish, expressed concerns to Fliss about Erickson’s alcohol consumption and asked that his associate be transferred.

From another paper

Erickson professed a love of God, but he was described by witnesses as a man who downloaded hardcore pornography, much of it involving boys. Authorities said one computer file labeled "Holy Mass/Prayers" included 40 pornographic photos.

Investigators said that when Erickson was 6 years old, he had sexual contact with a 4-year-old male cousin. At the age of 19, they said, he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy, and at 21 he was investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy at a summer resort.

On Monday, an alleged victim of Erickson testified that as a teenager he met Erickson at a parish in Somerset, Wis., where Erickson had a weekend assignment while still in the seminary. From 2000 to 2002, the young man testified, he spent many weekends at the rectory with Erickson watching horror movies and playing drinking games. He said Erickson supplied cans of beer and shots of liquor.

Once the boy was drunk, Erickson would molest him, according to the testimony.

Another victim, a teenage boy, testified that more recently Erickson engaged in drinking binges during sleepovers at St. Patrick’s rectory.

This article has a point not mentioned in the others, a detail one would think was important: that a deacon claims Erickson confessed the murders to him.

Michael reasonably asks why the deacon didn’t tell anyone about this at the time.