MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio
Victims group dismisses archdiocese review of clergy sexual abuse cases as ‘nothing but a smokescreen’
by Mike Cronin, Minnesota Public Radio,
Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public Radio,
Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
October 6, 2013
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The director of a group that advocates for victims of predator priests dismissed as a sham an order from the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis that the church form a clergy sexual-misconduct task force.
“It’s nothing but a smokescreen,” said Bob Schwiderski, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), during a phone interview with MPR News Sunday afternoon.
A Saturday letter from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis asked priests to tell parishioners during Mass this weekend about Archbishop John Nienstedt’s formation of a lay task force that will review the handling of clergy sexual misconduct.
“It is also critical that the assessment of this situation is done by an independent group so that there can be no question of the integrity of the review,” the letter read.
The archbishop appointed the Rev. Reginald Whitt, a Dominican priest and law professor at the University of St. Thomas, to “oversee the current administration related to clergy misconduct” and appoint the lay task force.
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