Rev. Robert Kapoun-Assignment

Rev. Robert Kapoun

Kapoun was known as the "Polka Padre", because he and his band played polka music at mass and at churches throughout Minnesota. Kapoun is known to have sexually abused adolescent boys as early as 1966, and throughout his career. He was the subject of five lawsuits, in 1989 and 1995. Archbishop Roach is said to have known of Kapoun's sexual abuse of children in at least 1973, when he was an auxiliary bishop, but took no action. Kapoun wasn't removed from ministry until 1996, when a victim went public, imploring the bishop to remove him.

Ordained: 1964

Start	Stop	Assignment	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1964 Leo Binz was archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis (1961-1975)	1967	Holy Redeemer	Montgomery	MN	2/2 Pastor was Rev. Francis J. Tomek.	Parish had a school with 378-363 students.
1967	1971	St. Kevin	Minneapolis • Accused in a 1995 lawsuit of sexually abusing from 1966-1969 a St. Kevin's altar boy and parish school student. (Star Tribune February 8, 1995)	MN	2/2 Kapoun worked under Rev. Robert A. Vashro.	Parish had a school with 335-253 students.
1971	1974	St. Raphael's	Crystal Village • Accused in a 1989 civil suit of having sexually abused a 12 year old St. Raphael's altar boy, who was also a student at the parish school, in 1973 and 1974. (United Press International August 22, 1989) • Accused in a 1995 lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy in 1973. The boy's father had died, and Kapoun stepped in as a "father figure". A parishioner is said to have reported the abuse to Bishop Roach, and that nothing was done. (Star Tribune February 8, 1995)	MN	2/3 Pastor was Msgr. Stanley J. Smec. In the third spot were Revs. Robert J. Carlson in 1971-1972, James B. Finnegan 1972-1973, and Joseph L. Wajda 1973-1974.	Parish had a school with 614-578 students. Wajda was accused in two 1989 lawsuits of sexually adolescent boys at St. Raphael's in 1973 and 1974. He was allowed to continue working as a priest until 2002. (Pioneer Press May 26, 2002)
1974 John Robert Roach replaced Binz as archbishop (1975-1995)	1976	Home of the Good Shepherd	St. Paul • Accused in a 1995 lawsuit of sexually abusing a St. Raphael's altar boy and parish school student in 1975. Some of the abuse is said to have occurred at the Home of the Good Shepherd. (Star Tribune February 8, 1995)	MN	Chaplain A second chaplain, Rev. John Fitzpatrick, worked under Kapoun 1975-1976.	The Home of the Good Shepherd is characterized in the Directories as a protective institution. It had 60 girls.
1976	1977	Sick Leave
1977	1984	St. Patrick's	Cedar Lake • Accused in a 1995 lawsuit of abusing a boy at St. Patrick's in 1980 or 1981. (Star Tribune February 8, 1995)	MN	1/1	Msgr. Smec testified in 1995 trial that in 1983 he reported allegations against Kapoun to Archbishop Roach. (Saint Paul Pioneer Press February 8, 1996)
1977	1984	St. Catherine's	Spring Lake	MN	1/1	St. Catherine's was a mission of St. Patrick's.
1984	1996	St. Scholastica	Heidelberg	MN	1/1	Roach testified in 1996 that he allowed Kapoun to stay in ministry in 1987, despite knowing he had sexually abused boys, because he thought he was a "changed man" after he had received counseling, and that he found Kapoun to be "believable, holy, very honest..." (Saint Paul Pioneer Press February 13, 1996)
1984	1996	St. Joseph's	Lexington	MN	1/1	In Feb. 1996 a jury awarded one of Kapoun's victims $1.1 million in damages, but the MN Court of Appeals reversed the decision in 1997 on a technicality.(Star Tribune June 18, 1997) The archdiocese and Kapoun filed to collect $6,000 from the victim to defray legal expenses. (Star Tribune June 10, 1997)
1991 Harry Joseph Flynn replaced Roach as archbishop (1995-2008)	1996	St. Thomas'	St. Thomas	MN	1/1	Kapoun was removed from the three parishes in which he was working in 1996 only after one of his victims went public. (Saint Paul Pioneer Press February 9, 1996)
1996	1998	Special Assignment		MN	Chancery Pro Tem
1998	2001	Special Assignment; Retired	Cold Spring	MN	Chancery Pro Tem
2001	2002	Retired				No longer appears in Directories after 2002.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1965-2002).

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy & Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.