Re-release of the ACNA Husch Blackwell Report

Why are we re-releasing the Husch Blackwell report ourselves?

On September 27, 2022, the ACNA released the final report from Husch Blackwell’s investigation into alleged mishandling of abuse allegations in the Diocese of the Upper Midwest. The final report included unredacted details of alleged sexual abuse. Husch Blackwell’s failure to redact these details was compounded by the fact that the victims had declined to participate in the investigation because of concerns over confidentiality. Numerous people privately and later publicly contacted the ACNA to inform them of these errors and to request proper redaction. The ACNA removed the report from their website four days later and posted this announcement noting the report's removal.

One month later, despite an institutional commitment to publish a “full public report that redacts names and identifying details to protect survivors and witnesses as appropriate,” the ACNA has not returned a properly-redacted report to their website.

On October 26, ACNAtoo sent the below email to Archbishop Foley Beach, Bishop Alan Hawkins of the Provincial Response Team, ACNA Director of Communications Canon Andrew Gross, and two Husch Blackwell representatives. As of today, October 31, no one has replied, and the ACNA has not re-published the report. So, as stated in our email, we are re-posting the Husch Blackwell report. The report remains unchanged except for additional redactions to protect sensitive personal and identifying survivor information.