Archbishop Promises Partial Predator List

SNAP
November 11, 2013

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mn_archbishop_promises_partial_predator_list

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Archbishop John Neinstedt now says he’ll release a partial list of predator priests.

“If Twin Cities pedophile priests now live in Rochester or Winona or Duluth, tough luck. We’re not gonna tell you who or where they are.”

That’s the message Archbishop John Neinstedt is sending to Minnesota parents. We deliberately use the word “citizens” here and not “parishioners” because child molesting Catholic clerics don’t just hurt Catholic kids. They also sexually assault kids from other denominations, because they’re relatives, they live nearby or for a wide range of reasons.

“If a Twin Cities pedophile priest sexually assaulted you and is now deceased, tough luck. We’re not gonna disclose the names of any deceased predator, no matter how many kids he’s hurt, how recently he died or how egregiously we covered up for him.”

That’s the message Archbishop Neinstedt is sending to victims.

There is, of course, no reason to keep hiding any predator priests, whether they are now in Mankato or Morocco, whether they’re alive or deceased. (In fact, arguably, Twin Cities predator priests who are now living far away are likely more dangerous than those who still live nearby.)

In 2002, St. Paul Archbishop Harry Flynn and his brother US bishops formally pledged to be “open and transparent” about clergy sex crimes. They did NOT promised to be “open” only about predator priests who are alive or “transparent” only about predator priests who live nearby.

Why is Neinstedt announcing this today? Because he wants to divert attention away from the most disturbing revelations yet in the continuing cover up crisis in his archdiocese: the news that Neinstedt and his top aides kept silent for years (perhaps decades) about an admitted serial predator priest whose name hasn’t been made public until today, Fr. Clarence Vavra.