Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 5, 2021 / 18:19 pm
An 18-month-long investigation into child sexual abuse in North Dakota's two dioceses has concluded, the state's attorney general announced Monday.
The investigation focused on a list of 53 men who had previously been identified by the dioceses of Bismarck and Fargo as being accused of sexual abuse. The dioceses considered the allegations against these 53 priests "substantiated."
The state identified one person, Fr. Odo Muggli, a priest of the Order of St. Benedict, whom they suspect abused at least one child. Muggli was not on the list of initial 53 names as he is not a diocesan priest. Muggli is accused of abusing a child in the 1970s.
Of the 53 names provided by the diocese, all but two were deceased at the time the lists were made public in 2019. Since then, one of those two priests has died.
The surviving priest, Fr. Norman Dukart, had his faculties permanently removed in 2002. Dukart is alleged to have sexually abused boys in the 1970s.