The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has prohibited Jesuit Father Patrick McCorkell from engaging in public ministry while he is under investigation for sexual misconduct with an adult woman.

Father McCorkell has been serving as the director of the Demontreville Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo since 2003. The woman reported in May to the archdiocese that she and an unnamed priest had been sexually involved in recent years, and she experienced the relationship as psychologically and emotionally abusive, according to a statement from Archbishop Bernard Hebda shared by Jesuit superiors with Demontreville staff July 19.

The archdiocese contacted law enforcement and later concluded that the priest was Father McCorkell. The archdiocese notified the priest’s religious superiors in the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, and learned that Father McCorkell had also self-reported the conduct to them.

The Jesuit province has determined that Father McCorkell remains fit to engage in public ministry. However, the conduct violates the archdiocese’s Code of Conduct for clergy serving in the archdiocese, and the archdiocese’s policy requires it to make it its own fitness for ministry determination. In these circumstances, the archdiocese’s Office for Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment is conducting its own investigation and will present the matter to its Ministerial Review Board, whose members will make a recommendation to Archbishop Hebda.