Church officials in St. Paul and the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., may have destroyed evidence that a St. Paul priest possessed child pornography, a St. Paul attorney charged.

Church documents released at a news conference on Nov. 13 describe how the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as the Vatican’s top official in Washington, feared a scandal in the case of the Rev. Donald Dummer. The St. Paul priest was accused of possessing pornographic videos when he was at St. Mary’s Parish in the late 1990s.

Dummer, 77, was added by the archdiocese to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.

Reached by phone in Tewksbury, Mass., Dummer denied that he had possessed child pornography tapes. “There is absolutely no truth to anything, and I say that in the name of God with my hand on the Bible,” he said.

Attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest Patrick Wall, who work with clergy abuse litigator Jeff Anderson, handed out documents that the archdiocese turned over as part of the settlement announced in October between the archdiocese and victims of clergy sex abuse.

They include a copy of a January 2002 letter indicating that in early 1997, a part-time employee at St. Mary’s came across a number of VCR movies in Dummer’s room. The employee was “shocked” by one of the videos, which depicted 10- to 12-year-old boys playing basketball in the nude.

The Cathedral of Saint Paul is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

The employee called the archbishop’s office, according to documents, and was referred to then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough. The letter said the employee found more videos depicting child pornography in Dummer’s room in early 1998 and delivered them to McDonough’s secretary.

Vatican correspondence

Other documents include correspondence between the Vatican embassy and local church officials discussing allegedly pornographic videotapes that were turned in by an employee at St. Mary’s.

McDonough, the archdiocese’s point person for clergy abuse complaints, destroyed the tapes, according to a document prepared by an employee at St. Mary’s.

Another document quotes the Rev. Joseph Hitpas, an official in Dummer’s religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, as saying that he would dispose of the alleged pornography.

Finnegan said the top official in the Vatican Embassy in Washington, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo Higuera, may have known about the destruction of the videotapes.

The documents indicate that Montalvo was sent three videos and a package of pictures, which Montalvo sent back to then-Archbishop Harry Flynn. Finnegan cited a letter in which Montalvo wrote to Flynn, “There is potential for public scandal.”

Flynn wrote Montalvo a follow-up letter in 2002 that attached another letter stating the tapes had been destroyed.

“The destruction of evidence by the archdiocese and the involvement of the Vatican embassy shows that the Vatican and top officials in the diocese chose to protect themselves instead of protecting kids,” Finnegan said Thursday.

Despite the accusations, Dummer continued working in the archdiocese until 2006 as a chaplain at Regions Hospital, where he had contact with adults and children, Finnegan said.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, said in a statement Thursday that Dummer was “permanently removed from ministry in 2006.” He acknowledged that Dummer was accused of possessing child pornography while he was living within the archdiocese.

“Today, we would handle such allegations differently,” Cozzens wrote. “Dummer left the Twin Cities area in 2010. In November 2013, the archdiocese provided Dummer’s file to police investigators.”

Finnegan said the documents have been turned over to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. He said Choi’s office should investigate church officials for possible obstruction of justice.

Dennis Gerhardstein, a spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office, said that it was involved in an ongoing investigation and that he could not comment on specifics.

“As we have said from the beginning, the facts will lead the way, and we can only do what the law allows and will do what justice requires, without fear or favor,” he said.

The Vatican embassy did not respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

Hitpas also was contacted Thursday. “At this time, because of legal issues, all the public statements are going to have to come out of our office in Washington,” said Hitpas, who is now a priest on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Oblate officials did not return phone calls.

Dummer was an associate pastor at Assumption church in Richfield from 1975 to 1981, a resident at St. Mary’s in St. Paul from 1996 to 2006, chaplain at Regions Hospital in St. Paul from 1997 to 2006, and a resident at Oblates in St. Paul from 2006 to 2009.

In his statement Thursday, Bishop Cozzens said that he and Archbishop John Nienstedt “and all other archdiocesan leaders” were “committed to doing everything we can to prevent abuses of the young and the vulnerable and to help abuse victims/survivors and their loved ones heal.”