Four More Ways Mn Catholic Officials Aren't "Transparent"

SNAP
October 25, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_four_more_ways_mn_catholic_officials_aren_t_transparent

[Archdiocese]

[Minnesota Public Radio]

[Star Tribune]

[Minnesota Public Radio]

For immediate release: Friday, Oct. 25

Statement by Bob Schwiderski Minnesota SNAP Director, (952 471 3422, skibrs@q.com)

You can’t make this stuff up.

Yesterday, Archbishop John Nienstedt wrote “We must also be committed to honesty and transparency.”

But he refuses to give interviews. And he and other top Twin Cities Catholic officials refuse to disclose

--who’s allegedly been hired to review archdiocesan clergy child sex abuse files

--who's allegedly been hired as the new outside archdiocesan public relations firm

--who’s allegedly investigating an accused predator priest at a Catholic university

--who's on the archdiocesan ‘review board’ that looks at specific child sex abuse reports and that found a child sex abuse report against Fr. Michael Keating lacks “sufficient evidence.”

This is being “open and transparent?”

We think not.

(By the way, the lawyers who are looking at archdiocesan clergy sex abuse files began their work ten days ago. But one of Nienstedt’s chief public relations staffers, James Accurso, claims he does not know who the lawyers are. So either Accurso is lying or Nienstedt is not even “transparent” with his staff.)

It’s yet another sign that the self-serving secrecy that got Twin Cities Catholic officials into this mess continues.

(NOTE: the archdiocesan review board is different from the new archdiocesan panel just set up. The former looks at actual cases of reported abuse. The latter is looking at church internal abuse procedures. The membership of the former is secret. The membership of the latter is not.)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com), Bob Schwiderski (952 471 3422, skibrs@q.com)