MINNESOTA
The American Conservative
By ROD DREHER • October 8, 2013
The disclosures in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis case keep coming. You may have thought these stories were behind us. They aren’t. Read today’s piece from Minnesota Public Radio:
Canon lawyer Jennifer Haselberger had uncovered several computer discs and a white three-ring binder kept in the basement archives of the chancery building — the headquarters of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was evidence from a 2004 internal investigation of sexually explicit images found on the computer of the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, then pastor of St. Jude of the Lake church in Mahtomedi, Minn.
Haselberger, a firebrand top official who joined the archdiocese in 2008, notified Nienstedt of the evidence, which included a report at the time from a private investigator that found that many of the depictions “could be considered borderline illegal, because of the youthful-looking male image.”
What followed was a contentious, yearlong debate among top leaders inside the chancery about whether the images met the legal definition of child pornography, according to internal church documents that Haselberger provided to police earlier this year and were obtained by MPR News. The documents shed new light on the Shelley case and provide a closer look at decisions that Nienstedt and former Archbishop Harry Flynn made to keep the matter quiet and continue Shelley in ministry.
OK, think about that. The bishop — the bishop! — and his inner circle spent a year arguing over whether photos of hot naked guys found on a priest’s hard drive crossed the line into illegality, thus forcing them to take him out of ministry. Stop right there. This is morally insane. Imagine Archbishop Nienstedt standing before the people of St. Jude parish and saying, “Good news, my brothers and sisters! I’ve investigated the matter, and decided that the gay porn your pastor was looking at does not meet the legal definition of child pornography. Father Shelley can stay with you as your spiritual father. You’re welcome.” That this was even a debate within the chancery as to Shelley’s fitness for pastoral leadership shows you how bad the problem is.
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