Michael Joseph Hoeppner (born June 1, 1949) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota from November 30, 2007, to April 13, 2021. After a Vatican investigation concluded that Hoeppner mishandled an allegation of sexual abuse by a priest,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

requested and received Hoeppner's resignation as bishop.

Biography

Early life

Michael Hoeppner was born on June 1, 1949, in

Winona, Minnesota Winona ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, Minnesota, United States. Located in bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf (Winona, Minnesota), Sugar Loaf. The population was 2 ...

. He undertook his theological studies at the

Pontifical North American College The Pontifical North American College (NAC) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic educational institution in Rome, Italy, that prepares seminarians to become priests in the United States and elsewhere. The NAC also provides a residence for Prie ...

in Rome. Hoeppner was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Winona on June 29, 1975, by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...

in Rome. Hoeppner received a

Licentiate of Canon Law Licentiate of Canon Law (; JCL) is the title of an advanced graduate degree with canonical effects in the Roman Catholic Church offered by pontifical universities and ecclesiastical faculties of canon law. Licentiate is the title of a person who ...

from

Saint Paul University Saint Paul University () is a bilingual Catholic university federated with the University of Ottawa since 1965. It is located on Main Street in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. Fully bilingual, it offers instruction in both of the countr ...

in Ottawa, Ontario. In addition to assignments within the Catholic school system in Winona, Hoeppner served as

diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

director of

vocation A vocation () is an Work (human activity), occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity. ...

s. He served as Winona's judicial vicar from 1988 to 1997 and was later appointed

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

by Bishop John Vlazny. Following Vlazny's appointment as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, Hoeppner was elected as

diocesan administrator A diocesan administrator (also known as archdiocesan administrator, archiepiscopal administrator and eparchial administrator for the case, respectively, of an archdiocese, archeparchy, and eparchy) is a provisional ordinary of a Catholic partic ...

to oversee the diocese until the installation of Bishop Bernard Harrington. Harrington then appointed Hoeppner as his

Bishop of Crookston

Hoeppner was appointed bishop of Crookston by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

on September 28, 2007. Hoeppner was consecrated by Archbishop Harry Flynn on November 30, 2007. In May 2017, Hoeppner became the first American bishop to be sued personally for

coercion Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to i ...

. The lawsuit was filed by Ronald Vasek, a former

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

candidate in the diocese. Vasek alleged that Monsignor Roger Grundhaus sexually abused him when he was a teenager during a trip to Ohio in 1971. Vasek reported his allegations to the diocese in 2011. In October 2015, Vasek signed a letter recanting his accusations against Grundhaus. Vasek said that Hoeppner threatened retaliation against Vasek's son, a priest in the diocese, if he failed to sign it. Vasek said that Hoeppner's actions were like "being abused all over again." On September 20, 2017, Vasek, the diocese and Hoeppner reached a legal settlement. As part of the agreement, Hoeppner released the letter from October 2015. In September 2019, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced it would investigate Hoeppner's actions in the Vasek case. This was the first investigation in the United States of a bishop for failure to follow the procedures for sexual abuse allegations that

promulgated in the 2019 document '' Vos estis lux mundi''.

Retirement

Following the archdiocese investigation, Francis requested Hoeppner's resignation as bishop of Crookston. It was accepted by the pope on April 13, 2021. In his final mass in Crookston, Hoeppner apologized "...to you and everyone, as I've apologized to the Holy Father, for any failures of mine in governing as bishop." In March 2022, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the new bishop of Crookston, announced that he would not allow Hoeppner to return to the diocese.

References

External links