Fair. Disciplined. Thorough. Compassionate. Experienced. Credible.
Co-workers, victims-survivors and other observers use those words as they describe Tim O’Malley, 67, who as director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment helped lead the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis out of a crisis stemming from clergy sexual abuse.
After shaping and leading the office for nine years, O’Malley began a new chapter Aug. 1, now working part-time as an adviser to Archbishop Bernard Hebda and senior archdiocesan leadership in areas related to strategic planning and organizational health. O’Malley also plans to consult with the new director of the Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment office, Paul Iovino, on long-term safe environment efforts and be a resource and sounding board for victims-survivors. Iovino joined the archdiocese as deputy director of the office in 2021, and now will lead efforts with archdiocesan leadership, the Ministerial Review Board and other groups to protect children and vulnerable adults in Catholic parishes, schools and ministries.
By all accounts from clergy, local and national leaders, O’Malley brought credibility to a highly contentious situation in 2014, with his background as a state administrative law judge, director of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he sought justice for those harmed and safety for the vulnerable as he helped develop safe environment protocols and procedures in the archdiocese, even as it faced claims of sexual abuse, many dating between the mid-1950s and mid-1980s, and lawsuits from victims-survivors, criminal charges stemming from the crisis and the need to file for bankruptcy protection in a $210 million settlement of more than 400 claims of sexual abuse.
Archbishop Hebda said O’Malley was a “key player” as the archdiocese negotiated to settle the civil and criminal charges filed by Ramsey County and to arrive at a settlement in bankruptcy court: “A man of principle and perseverance, Tim brought to the table a keen intellect and a deep sense of fairness that gave the archdiocese credibility at a time when few had any confidence in bishops and Church leadership,” the archbishop said. “I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity that I had to thank Tim’s delightful mom, Loretta, for giving him a dependable and Catholic moral compass. “
O’Malley also brought compassion and a desire for healing to his work with victims-survivors in particular, but also with clergy facing accusations, civil authorities and archdiocesan leaders. Co-workers and observers said he sought partnerships with all parties to bring the local Church to a healthy place that better protected children.
“Tim O’Malley coming to the archdiocese was definitely a ‘game-changer,’” said Susan Mulheron, chancellor for canonical affairs, who was appointed to her position in 2013 just as the scandal broke.
“Tim stepped into the role with a wealth of experience that immediately took us to a higher level in terms of policy development, professionalizing our internal operations and providing appropriate support to our clergy review board,” Mulheron said. “He also came to us with an incredibly high degree of credibility with government agencies and other leaders in the community, which was critical for us moving forward at the time.”
Under O’Malley, and now Iovino, the archdiocese’s safe environment standards and internal protocols have become a model for other dioceses to follow, Mulheron said. Mulheron and O’Malley, for example, were invited to take part in February 2019 in a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on emerging best practices in response to the abuse crisis. The discussion was sponsored by the Leadership Roundtable, an organization of lay and clergy dedicated to good management and leadership development in the Church.
Mulheron and O’Malley have twice been invited to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome for an annual International Safeguarding Conference on clergy sexual abuse. They were two of only six participants from the United States.
Mulheron said of O’Malley, “He has been a champion of innovative healing and outreach efforts, including restorative justice and healing circles, which was an essential component of settling the criminal cases. He has been bold in engaging those who have been most critical of us, such as sexual abuse survivor advocacy groups, and even partnering (with) and befriending them in some cases. He was able to recognize how intentionally listening to these critical voices and engaging with them would help us all get closer to our common goal of keeping kids safe.”
PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Tim O’Malley, a lifelong Catholic, said he feels his most important accomplishment as head of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment was partnering with individuals and organizations “to put in place a practical safe environment approach that should withstand the test of time, so that kids are safer for generations to come.”
A second accomplishment worth noting is “justly holding abusive priests to account while also proving the innocence of erroneously or falsely accused priests,” O’Malley said.
The most rewarding part of his job was “working with Archbishop (Bernard) Hebda, senior staff and the finest collection of investigators and support staff I have ever been associated with” and developing “the relationships and, in many cases, the deep friendships that have been forged with victims-survivors.”
“The faith journey with the archdiocese has been extraordinarily meaningful, fulfilling and rewarding,” O’Malley said.
Kathleen McChesney, who in 2002 set up and led the Office of Child Protection under the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, now runs a management consulting company that helped the archdiocese in the early days of the crisis. Prior to O’Malley joining the archdiocese, she had asked him for leadership recommendations for the child protection office being set up in the archdiocese.
“I’ve known Tim for lots of years,” said McChesney, who held the FBI’s third highest position as executive assistant director of law enforcement before helping the USCCB and then leading Kinsale Management Consulting. “I’ve always admired his intellect and his compassionate leadership.”
She also knew of his belief in the Church and the high standards he wanted the Church to uphold. Still, because she knew he held a good position as an administrative law judge, she was “kind of surprised” when he expressed interest in the archdiocesan job for himself.
“I knew Tim and asked him who might be interested,” McChesney said. “We talked about the potential to really do good. I think that interested him, and he said, ‘I can recommend a lot of people, but might they consider me?’”
“I knew he would take it to a new level, and he did,” McChesney said.
It wasn’t just O’Malley working hard at the archdiocese, McChesney said. Archbishop Hebda, Father Charles Lachowitzer as the vicar general and moderator of the curia, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, now bishop of Crookston, and many others came together to make things better, she said.
“That was a team you couldn’t beat, in terms of knowledge, empathy and interpersonal skills,” she said.
Looking back on his tenure, O’Malley pointed to that team as well, and to others he has worked with in the archdiocese and in the community.
“Over the past decade, so many people joined together for the well-being of others and our Church,” O’Malley said. “Clergy like Archbishop Hebda, Bishop Cozzens, (then-Auxiliary) Bishop (Lee) Piché (now vicar for retired priests), Father Lachowitzer, Father (Michael) Tix and so many other priests and deacons,” he said.
“Laity like members of the Ministerial Review Board and the Archdiocesan Finance Council and Corporate Board, staff at the (Archdiocesan) Catholic Center, in parishes and schools, law enforcement and prosecutors, counselors, and most important of all, the scores of victims-survivors … and their loved ones who partnered in reform and healing efforts when to do so was risky. They showed fortitude, compassion and courage. They are the difference makers,” O’Malley said.
Rough start
The effort did not begin smoothly. “The Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment started on a napkin in the old archdiocesan offices” on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Father Lachowitzer said of revamping the archdiocese’s safe environment practices.
Then O’Malley was hired, and he “had a head for structures of organizations and a heart for team building,” Father Lachowitzer said.
That team included Michael Campion, a former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and Janell Rasmussen, a former BCA program administrator who coordinated the state’s AMBER Alert program. Investigators included Neil Nelson, a retired St. Paul Police Department commander who through a federal grant led statewide efforts to battle internet crimes against children.
The imposing team brought questions among clergy and others in the archdiocese, said Father Tix, now vicar general but at the time pastor of St. John the Baptist in Savage and executive director of the Presbyteral Council.
“There was skepticism on the part of clergy and the feeling that the diocese was being run by law enforcement, whether police officers or lawyers, which in hindsight was necessary for the institutional change that was needed,” Father Tix said. “Everyone was shaken by the crisis, and unsure how the archdiocese would regain a position of moving forward, especially our clergy. Tim was a key figure to collaborate with others including lay leadership in helping our local Church to learn from our past ways to better serve in the future.”
“Tim came to be quickly respected by our clergy as someone who was fair and seeking only the truth in a particular situation,” Father Tix said.
Patty Wetterling, an advocate for child protection since her son, Jacob, was abducted in 1989 in St. Joseph, joined the Ministerial Review Board in 2016 and served for five years. She said O’Malley worked on her son’s case as an agent with the BCA and was this “compassionate law enforcement officer. He led with such integrity and compassion. When he invited me to join the (board) it was so easy to say yes. He surrounds himself with people of competence and integrity.”
Now, O’Malley’s efforts are known across the country, Wetterling said. “I know it’s a model. It’s a model not only for the Church, but for the problem our culture has” with child abuse, she said. “It’s getting people help and in positions where it won’t happen again.”
Victims-survivors of clergy sexual abuse — including Jim Richter, who sits on the MRB, and Frank Meuers, the southwest Minnesota chapter director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, since 2012 — said they worked closely with O’Malley and respect him.
For a time, Meuers, who pressured the archdiocese to take more action and helped in a fight that successfully suspended the state statute of limitations in cases of sexual abuse, met once a month with O’Malley, a relationship Meuers once said to his knowledge was unlike any other that a SNAP leader had with a Church official.
“We weren’t quite sure where we were going. That’s OK, then we never failed to meet our goal,” Meuers said with some humor of finding innovative ways to help victims-survivors and protect the vulnerable from abuse.
Victims’ voices were heard, and steps were taken, including strengthening the 12-member MRB with people who have a wide range of professional experience, Meuers said. O’Malley “whipped an organization into shape” by hiring people with law enforcement backgrounds like Campion and Rasmussen, he said.
“He was able to bring in good people, and that’s what you want,” Meuers said. As to the future, Meuers said, “I think the thing is functioning very well compared to what it was.”
Richter said he had been through some measure of healing of his own when he contacted O’Malley in the early days of the archdiocese’s crisis, offering to help in whatever way he could. They met for breakfast.
“I remember meeting a guy who wanted to know what was possible, what could be done in the circumstances of the moment,” Richter said of O’Malley. “There were lawsuits, hundreds of complainants and a void of meeting people’s needs. Tim wanted to gain some understanding and not make a bad situation worse.”
Richter joined the MRB in 2016. He moved a year ago to a town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and now takes part virtually or commutes into the Twin Cities for MRB meetings. Richter said he feels listened to, valued and empowered as board members discuss complaints that can include such issues as financial misdeeds, personal improprieties and potential abuse. He admires what O’Malley has done and trusts that Iovino will continue the good work that preceded him.
“There’s something dynamic about him. He is open to change, adaptable, looking to others,” Richter said. “Tim O’Malley is a shining example of the right person who was in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time.”
Kevin Conneely, an attorney and member of Annunciation in Minneapolis, chaired the MRB in 2013, when thousands of clergy files were examined and cases were presented to the board, then called the Ministerial Standards Board. The board was given great responsibility as it made recommendations to the archbishop, he said.
“It really was a high-powered thing. It was humbling to be part of it,” he said. “Tim brought a rigor to what we were doing, and led by his own example of digging in, being fair, but getting to the bottom of things. He respected everyone involved in the process. He didn’t come with an agenda in any direction.”
Some people in the archdiocese might have thought the effort was window dressing, Conneely said. But that was not the case. “These were very serious, professional people,” he said. “They weren’t going to sit around being a front for other people, or a rubber stamp for the archbishop. No.”
Safe environment efforts going forward are on solid footing, Conneely said, adding, “It’s built on a firm foundation.”
A RETIREMENT
Michael Campion was hired as assistant director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment in October 2014, only a month after Tim O’Malley became director. It was a reversal of sorts: As commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety in 2006, Campion promoted O’Malley to superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Now, O’Malley has stepped away as director of the archdiocesan office and Campion retired July 28.
The shift in leadership is significant, but with Paul Iovino taking O’Malley’s position, a strong safe environment culture in the archdiocese and the early crisis abated, it is a good time to retire, said Campion, who plans to spend more time with his wife, Kathryn, their three children and 10 grandchildren.
Taking the job with the archdiocese when he was 66, at a time he could have retired but worked global security and investigations for a company in Minneapolis, was a response to a call to help the Church, said Campion, a member of St. Odilia in Shoreview.
“There are some callings that you simply can’t say no to,” Campion said. A lifelong Catholic and St. Paul native, Campion said working for the archdiocese was an opportunity to help the Church at a difficult time, and to make a difference.
“I think Tim would agree with me that when we first got here, our heads were spinning a little bit,” Campion said. “What do we really do? How do we do it? This was very new to everybody. So, it took us a while to get our feet on the ground and determine a course of action. … But we did ultimately figure it out collectively, not any one person. I think we all contributed to that.”
One source of pride Campion mentioned also was brought up by investigator Neil Nelson, a retired St. Paul Police commander who responded to O’Malley’s request for help. They were pleased by helping exonerate priests who had been wrongly accused of some misdeed, a point O’Malley made as well.
“I am proud of the fact that there were innocent priests that we helped get back into clergy work, or ministry work,” Campion said. “It wasn’t just a negative thing. It wasn’t just a negative course of action.”
Nelson also commented on the privilege of being able to witness the ministry and dedication of the priests of the archdiocese.
“It’s an honor to know these priests,” he said. “Tim has held us investigators to a high standard. It isn’t enough to say there was not enough evidence” to prove wrongdoing, Nelson said. “We needed to prove they didn’t do it, so that it’s not a gray mark in their file.” They needed to be exonerated, he said.
